Unexpected Series of Events
by super sycoh
Summary: Draco's mother is friends with Hermione's mum. For his own safety, he is left to stay with the Granger's during summer while his mother goes into hiding. Draco and Hermione become friends, but something in the shadows threatens to tear them apart.
1. MOTHER'S FRIEND

**Unexpected Series of Events**

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THEM(DRACO, HERMIONE, HER PARENTS,ETC). IF I DID I WOULD BE FILTHY STINKING RICH. BUT UNFORTUNATELY J.K. ROWLING DOES, SO DON'T SUE ME CUZ I AM TOO BROKE TO PAY FOR A DECENT LAWYER, LET ALONE A NICE PAIR OF SNEAKERS. -- END OF RANT--

Draco Malfoy woke with a start, findind his mother shaking him rudely awake. He had a strong urge to tell to his mother to leave him in peace, but his upbringing got the best of him.

"What mum," he said.

"Get dressed," she said annoyed at his sleepiness, "we're going to visit an old friend of mine in London." At those words she left the room.

He turned over in his bed, and thought to himself, 'mum has friends, this can't be good'. He rose from the bed and a house elf came bounding up to do his bidding. He simply looked at the elf in disgust, and barked orders at it.

Narscissa waited in the parlor for her son to finish getting ready. She longed to hurry off to London to find her long lost friend. She looked up and saw her son watching her mumble to herself. She had been waiting for the time to reunite with her muggle friend ever since Lucius had been arrested and sent off to Azkaban. That was his mistake, and she would never wait around for him to come back and hurt her with his words of malice and hate. Her son had long been corrupted by his evil, and longed to have Draco be a normal sixteen year old wizard. Instead she had this spiteful boy who resembled his father a little too much.

She rose and he followed her out of the manor to the muggle car waiting outside. They rode in silence, until he finally decided to open his mouth to ask about this adventure she was set on finishing.

"Where are we going" he asked.

"To London, I have an old friend to visit," she simply stated, and that was the end of the conversation between the mother and son.

They arrived in front of a very simple house and Draco looked on in shock. He turned to his mother and felt the question come to his lips.

"Your old friend is a muggle," he asked in utter horror. "That's positively disgusting mother. Are you really my mother, or just a pretender?" Draco looked ready to start off into a diatribe when Narcissa cut him off.

"You will behave yourself Draco," Narcissa said, "I'll tolerate all the nasty thing's that Lucius has made you, but I will not have a son that is impolite in the presence of company."

"If father knew . . . " her son began.

"If your father knew, I'd be dead," she said simply. "That is no great mystery to me Draco."

Draco looked as if he was having trouble swallowing a rock. The boy was misguideded. After having his father sent off to Azkaban, Draco had become a recluse. There's no mistake that the boy idolized his father, Narcissa didn't want to take any of the good things that Lucius had done for Draco. There was just too much bad that outweighed the good to let her stand around and allow for her son's complete transformation into his father.

She fixed his collar, and took a step towards the house and motioned for her son to come. Draco could do nothing else but follow since the car they had come in had drove off during his question. They came to the door, and he felt his mother shake in anticipation. She rang the doorbell and simply waited to see if her old friend would come to the door.

A/N: HATE TO STOP THERE BUT I GOTS TA. I WAS FEELING INSPIRED ABOUT HALF A SECOND AGO BUT NOW I REALIZE THAT THAT FEELING IS HUNGER. SO I AM GOING TO TAKE A BREAK FOR SOME MUNCHIES.


	2. REUNION

**Unexpected Series of Events**

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THEM, AND IF I DID HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO THE COPYRIGHTS, THEN MAYBE, JUST MAYBE I MIGHT BE RICH, FILTHY STINKING RICH. MUUUAAAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAA!!--END OF RANT--

**REUNION**

A tall woman with bushy brown hair, slightly graying from time, answered the door. Her eyes immediately swelling with tears, as memories from her youth rushed to her mind when she saw Narcissa Malfoy. She looked into the face of her old friend and let the tears come lose.

"Narcissa," gasped the woman, she grasped the door frame to help herself stand. "It can't be you . . ."

What happened next to Draco's disgust was his mother also breaking down into tears, nodding the answer, and pulling her old friend into her arms. They sank to the ground and cried their eyes out in sheer happiness at being reunited at long last.

His mother regained her composure and pulled her friend to a standing position.

"It's been so long" Narcissa said, "you've changed so little, and we've drifted apart for too long," she smiled.

She then turned to Draco and whispered, "This is an old friend of mine, Draco, I expect you to treat her with the respect you would give a pure blooded wizard, or else there will be hell to deal with when we get home."

He nodded his head in compliance and followed his mother into the muggle's house. His head was still reeling from the conversation he just had with his mother. He felt a tremendous wave of grief, but he didn't let it show. He knew that he was all Narcissa Malfoy cared for in the world now, but now, he was feeling like he could have her committed to St. Mungo's for what she was doing right now. He took a look around and spotted a figure curled up into a ball in front a glowing screen that flashed nonsense about saving children in some obscure far off country.

The muggle woman and his mother walked up beside him chatting away about their lives.

"That's my daughter," she explained to her friend," she must have fallen asleep late last night."

"What's her name, Emm," his mother asked.

The muggle woman muttered her name and Draco couldn't hear it very well.

"That's a pretty name," his mother exclaimed.

"Come sit down" the woman gestured to the sofa, and sat down facing away from her daughter, and towards her friend.

His mother sat down next to the woman and he followed after.

"This is my son Draco," turning to him on the other couch. She smiled the smile that implied that he should say something to her.

Although it pained him he managed to remain composed."Nice to meet you," he struggled to keep the look of revulsion off his face, as he smiled towards the woman. 'Why am I doing this' thought to himself. 'Because you love your mother' the voice in his head said with the drawl that often came out of his own mouth, 'and she's all you have left since your father landed himself in wizard prison. 'It's all his fault' he then concluded from the argument he was having with himself. 'I'll be happy for her,' he thought finally.

His eyes suddenly landed on the figure on the reclining chair, which was stirring awake. The muggle woman must have tracked his gaze and looked behind her at her shifting daughter.

"Did we wake you dear," the woman asked.

"No," the murmur came from under the comforter.

"We have visitors, dear," the woman started.

"Would you like me to leave," came the murmur again.

"No, honey, I'd like you to meet them," she stated.

**A/N:** GOTTA STOP THERE IF YOU WANT MORE REVIEW, REVIEW, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, YOU KNOW THE DRILL.  
SUPER SYCOH


	3. FORCED FRIENDSHIP

**Unexpected Series of Events**

**A/N:** Wow thanks to the wonderful two people who reviewed.(TEAR RUNS DOWN CHEEK) It really made me want to keep writing another chapter to this "on the rocks story", thanks you guys, tell your friends, it's good for my self esteem, since it's been so low these past couple days. Soooooooooooooo this chapter is for you two, who asked so nicely for me to UPDATE SO SOON.

**Forced Friendship**

A hand slipped out the comforter and held up her pointer finger, meaning that she wanted to have a moment before she would show herself to the strangers in her living room. The girl stood up and with the comforter over herself walked out of the living room, up the stairs, and away from the visitors.

Draco only thought of what that girl looked under that comforter. 'Is she pretty', 'Does she look like a hag', 'Is she fat', 'Will she _like _me...', that thought came to his head and he became shocked with himself for even thinking that he would associate himself with a muggle. If father knew he would beat Draco senseless. 'It's a good thing he's in prison,' the drawl came in is head again, this time with mirth lacing ever word.

Minutes later Draco heard footsteps coming towards the stairs up on the second floor. 'She must be coming down,' he thought and looked towards the stairs. A girl with brownish- auburn hair came down the stairs, and stopped in shock.

The pair looked at each other both taken aback at the sight of each other. The woman turned to her daughter and introduced the mother and son to her.

Hermione stood rooted to the spot at the sight of Draco Malfoy, sitting in her living room. 'What is he doing here,' she thought wildly to herself, barely listening to her mother introduce her to the "Malfoy's."

"Come sit down next do Draco, dear," Hermione heard her mother say distantly, and she snapped out of her confusion and did as she was told. Draco stood up and offered his hand to Hermione, with a slight smirk on his face. He then leaned down and kissed he fingers, scowling as he looked up at her. She sat as far from "Draco" as she could on the Love Seat. It was sort of hard. 'This has got to be an act' she thought as her mother told the two teens about her relationship with the Malfoy she sat next to.

Draco knew he was being _too much_ for Hermione Granger, but he did relish in the fact that he made her feel very uncomfortable just with the simple act of being nice. Not that he'd admit to it to anyone he met ever again, nor would she.

The two teens sat in silence as the mothers told of their tale from childhood to the day they were parted by Narcissa's husband.

The mothers looked at their children and saw that they were not even looking at each other. Then a plan was conceived in their heads.

"Well why don't we leave you two alone, so you could get better acquainted," started Narcissa.

"We already know each other," said Malfoy, "we go to Hogwarts together, we're in the same year, mother."

Narcissa looked to her friend in shock. Emily bore the same shocked expression on Narcissa's. They didn't know that their children went to the same school, let alone a magical school.

"Good, since you know each other already," Narcissa said, " you don't mind taking a walk around London, so me and Emm can have some alone time with each other. We have quite a lot to discuss, what with this new piece of information you've revealed."

"That sounds like a lovely idea," chimed Emily standing up and pulling the two teens to their feet. She grabbed Hermione's purse, gave her daughter some money and said to go buy her own breakfast today. She definitely had more to talk about with Narcissa.

The two mothers ushered their offspring out the door and sent them off on their own for the day.

"This is all your fault, Granger," barked Malfoy.

"How is it my fault when it was your mother that we suggested we go out into London together," yelled Hermione.

He just stood there with no response.

"They are going to be talking all day, I might as well go get breakfast," said Hermione in an exasperated tone, and started walking towards the nearest café. Draco silently followed.

**A/N: **Revised Chapter. Sort of.


	4. HAVING FUN WITH YOUR ENEMY

**Unexpected Series of Events**

**Having Fun With Your Enemy**

Hermione walked to the café a block down, with Malfoy following behind her griping about how people of his status shouldn't have to walk anywhere like some sort of common "muggle." Hermione drowned out his moans and groans by focusing on the sounds of the streets. She had spent so much time at The Burrow, that she had missed the sounds of London so much that she was actually grateful to be home. Not that she didn't love the Weasleys but there was such a thing as spending to much time with friends. Ron especially. He had taken to smothering her when not preoccupied with Harry's destiny. So she wrote home and her parents came and picked her up. It felt like she was really breathing again.

They went inside the café and sat down in a booth. She started ordering for herself until she noticed Malfoy sitting across from her looking out he window.

"Are you hungry," she asked, snapping him out of his dazed look. "I can hear your stomach growling," she continued with a smirk.

"I don't need your sympathy," he barked. His stomach growled again, he blushed.

"Right," she said and turned to the waitress and ordered him some breakfast.

They ate in silence for a couple of minutes. She watched him down his breakfast apprehensively, like the pancakes would spring to life and devour him if he poked it wrong.

"It's not going to attack you," she said while buttering her muffin.

"That's not what I'm worried about," he barked, "how do I know that this isn't poisoned," he said gesturing to his food.

"Your acting like a crazy person," Hermione said looking around the small café. "If you weren't allowed to do magic, you wouldn't survive in the muggle world."

He grimaced, and decided to change the subject, not wanting to spend the day with a silent escort. With his mother's words still fresh in his head, he resigned himself to be less of an annoyance to Hermione.

"What was that funny box thing in your living room," he said while starting to eat his food no longer restrained by his paranoia.

"I'm assuming you mean the television," replied Hermione.

"Yes, the telefision," he said spilling a bit of maple syrup on the table, "what's it got inside? Must be something large, it's so obscene to have anything that big presented in front of company."

"Um, well it . . . uh. . . shows television programs, it hasn't got anything inside of it other than wires and tubes. But they work together to create a picture on the front screen of it," Hermione answered, not really knowing how to explain what the television does in terms he would understand.

"What are these telefision programs," he continued.

"They . . . they well entertain. . . it's kind of hard to explain," said Hermione.

"Granger, not knowing the answer to something, that's a first," he exclaimed after swallowing his pancakes. "That's not like the 'know it all braniac teachers pet' I've gotten the pleasure of insulting."

"Well it's like trying to explain how magic works, Malfoy, it just happens that way, it's not my fault that you weren't raised to know the technology that the muggles have developed," Hermione said in an exasperated tone. "Maybe you should take Muggle Studies so I don't have to struggle to explain to you how anything works here in the real world."

"You're just mad because you don't know the answer," he replied under his breath.

"Yeah, well I could leave you right now with the bill for this meal, that you can't pay for," said Hermione. "Do you know what they do to people who can't pay the bill, Malfoy," she said looking at him. "They take them out back to the kitchens and they make them do manual labor."

"They wouldn't do that," he said with doubt, "would they?"

"Oh yes, so you better just shut your mouth and eat your free breakfast before I change my mind, Malfoy," Hermione finished carefully.

"Oooooooohhhhh, are you threatening me Mudblood," he asked adding emphasis on the last word.

"Don't call me that Malfoy," Hermione said, "or I'll take you down to the London Underground and leave you there for the homeless to pick at." She smiled at the look of shock on his face.

"Sooooo, you better behave yourself, because they like frightened little British boys, . . . who knows what they might do to you, they could make you their pretty girl," she added.

"Fine," he muttered.

'I've got to get away from this madwoman.' Draco thought silently to himself. 'She's going to feed me to those muggle hobo's she talked about.' 'Curse mother for forcing us on this outing together.'

"Where can we go so I don't have to do a lot of walking and we wont have to be seen by anyone we know," Hermione said thinking out loud.

"I don't care where we go just as long as we can stop walking," drawled a very annoyed Malfoy. "I'm tired of those old people commenting on what a CUTE COUPLE we make," he eyed everyone around him suspiciously.

"Well, we could go to the nearest movie theater," suggested Hermione.

"And since when did you think that I have the slightest notion on what a MOFIE DIETER is," he growled angrily. He hated this feeling. The feeling of not knowing what anything was, and having everything explained to him. His curiosity was at it's peak, yet the only person he could get answers from also happened to have the meanest right hook in all of violence history.

Hermione giggled at his pronunciation of movie and lead him to a movie theater that only showed old black and white movies, thinking that the newer realistic movies might scare the piss out of Malfoy, although she did toy with the idea of taking him to watch 'Terminator 3' but decided against it, she didn't want him sidestepping every piece of machinery he came up to, seeing how he didn't even know what the telly was.

They walked into the dark theater which was showing 'Night of The Living Dead.' She had seen this movie a thousand times and she is still slightly shaken by it. To her the originals were always better.

"What is this place, Granger," hissed Malfoy from beside her.

"It's a movie theater, kind of like the television only larger and louder," she said.

The movie started and she felt Malfoy's every move next to her. He would tense up during moments when the zombies would attack, and occasionally snarl about how stupid the muggles were, but she knew he was enjoying himself.

They left the theater with Malfoy babbling beside her, about how ironic the ending was and how the blonde muggle girl was being so stupid running into the arms of her dead zombie brother, and it went on like that till they stopped for lunch.

There she ordered him a kiddie meal, and let him babble on some more.

"The screen was so large, now I see how the muggles live without magic, they entertain themselves with this . . . what's the word Hermione," he said after fiddling with his free toy.

"Technology," said Hermione smiling.

"Yes, technolology," he continued with his rant on and on while Hermione ate her food.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Malfoy, I think," said Hermione, "your father would be very disappointed in you," she joked.

"Yes. . . he would. . . I should do this more often," he finally declared, his eyes flashing. He was beginning to understand what his mother was returning to by meeting with Mrs. Granger. Muggle's lived a completely different life and it wasn't better, but it wasn't any worse than a Wizard life. "Mother would probably visiting more and more over the summer, so we're going to have to do more things to occupy our time with."

"Do you know what you just said," Hermione blurted out, choking on the soda she was drinking, "You Draco Malfoy, actually want to do muggle things?! With me, of all people?"

Draco was shocked by her outburst. He thought over his words and was shocked at what he had said also. He didn't realize he was thinking all those words out loud. He just had a good time with one of his most hated classmates. Although he didn't exactly feel the hate inside him anymore for her. 'I guess mother's little plan is working after all,' the drawl in his head came.

"Maybe not all muggle things," he said finally after his moment of thought. "I could definitely do without the walking thing."  
Hermione just laughed.

"You're just too bloody lazy," she said giggling, "look at yourself, your so skinny, your nothing but skin bones almost."

"That's none of your concern," Draco said, "and stop checking me out Granger, you're making me uncomfortable," he added jokingly.

She just rolled her eyes at him. "You're so conceited," she said.

"That's part of my charm," he said putting up a false bravado and knocking a couple of his french fries to the floor with his Lockhart like movement.

"Whatever," she said, "what do you suggest we do now, oh charming one?"

"Take me to the park," he said, "and we could . . . waste the rest of the day there."

"Fine," and Hermione lead him to the park not far from her house.

They spent the rest of the afternoon at the park. Making small talk and occasionally chasing each other around the park for something one said or did or threw, like a pinecone. If they were ever cornered and asked this by their friends they both knew that they would deny it, badly, since they were both having such a good time together how could they help but think back to this day and remember all the fun that they had. It was this day that began the friendship between the two completely different people, with intertwining interests. They would never admit it to anyone else but they knew that they were having a good time with each other, but the whole world didn't have to know about it. . .

**DISCLAIMER:** I DON'T OWN THE HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS. THE TERMINATOR OR THE ZOMBIE MOVIE ISN'T MINE EITHER. SO DON'T BOTHER SUING ME!! I DON'T OWN THEM. I REPEAT. I DON'T OWN THEM!!

**A/N: **REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW.


	5. DINNER AT THE GRANGER'S

**Unexpected Series of Events **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, nor do I own any other pop culture products mentioned here or in any other chapters. I simply don't own them. SO DON'T SUE. I DON'T OWN THEM!!

**A/N:** WELL YOU GUYS, I RECENTLY READ A STORY MUCH LIKE MINE. IT HAS THE SAME PREMISE AND THE TEENS FRIENDSHIP DOES START W/THE MOTHERS. SOUND INTERESTING?? CHECK IT OUT. IT'S CALLED OH, THE TEMPTATION. JUST SEARCH FOR IT, IT'S HERE SOMEWHERE. AND BTW. THANKS TO THOSE WHO REVIEWED ON THE LAST CHAPTER, MEANT A LOT TO ME. SO TO SHOW MY APPRECIATION I GIVE A NEW CHAPTER. . .

**DINNER AT THE GRANGER'S**

They started walking back to Hermione's house around 6, in a rather exhausted pace. Occasionally one would wobble to the side and bump into a random object, like a street lamp, or a fire hydrant, or each other. They made their way up to the house and Hermione keyed her way in.

"Mum," Hermione called into the home, "we're back!"

Mrs. Granger walked out of the kitchen and greeted to two teens with a kiss and a hug.

"Hello, you two," said Mrs. Granger with a smile after letting go of Draco, "dinner starts in twenty minutes. Did you two have fun today."

"We had a wonderful time, Mrs. Granger," Draco said, grinning. "We went to a mofie dieter, and I talked to real life janitor and. . ."

"And we went to the park," Hermione cut in, "we saw ducks and Draco got into a fight with one," Hermione finished.

"Well I'm glad you two had a wonderful time, Hermione dear you got a call from Michael, he says he wants you to call him back, and Draco, your mother's in the kitchen, she'd like to talk to you about something," said Mrs. Granger.

Hermione hurried upstairs while Malfoy walked over to where her mother indicated the kitchen was. She got to her room and quickly searched for her phone, under the piles of books she had near her bed. She started dialing Michael's phone number, when she stopped, distracted a white snowy owl tapping at her window.

She went over to the window and let the owl in. She took the letter from Hedwig's outstretched leg and offered her a treat from her bird feeder. Hedwig gave a hoot of appreciation and flew off again.

_Dear Hermione,_

Too bad you felt a little homesick, I guess I would be too, with that whole impending danger coming closer everyday. Spend as much time with your parents as you need Hermione, Ron misses you terribly, so do the rest of the Weaselys. I think I should warn you, Ron plans to send Pig over weekly to see if you'd like to come back to the burrow. I think he's starting to fancy you Hermione. I'm just kidding don't freak out.

_Harry_

'Ron. . . He was the reason I left The Burrow,' she thought to herself. 'Harry could be on to something, what if Ron did like Hermione'. . . 'it would certainly explain his actions this summer,' the voice in her head came helpfully. Hermione sighed and put the letter in her desk drawer. She picked up her phone and decided against calling her friend, now that she had more on her mind, than when she had started dialing. She picked up a book, and headed down stairs.

Draco went into the kitchen to find his mother standing by the sink looking lost in her own thoughts. She looked at him and gestured towards the small table, and sat down across from her son.

"Draco, I'm worried," she said looking into her son's eyes. "Your father will not stay quiet in that cell forever, and I'm afraid that YOU- KNOW-WHO might send his minions after us to keep us from fleeing the country," she went on searching for what kind of emotion lay on her son's face.

"What are you saying mother," asked Draco.

"I'm saying," Narcissa started, "that it may not be safe for us to go back to the manor just yet." "I've talked it over with Emm, I've decided that for your protection you should stay here with the Granger's for the rest of the summer," she finished.

"Look, mother, whatever danger there is I'm sure we can handle it," said Draco. His mother had never expressed a worry about father before, and her concern over him made the hair's on the back of his neck stand on end.

"How," said Narcissa, "you can't do magic legally yet and you haven't had the proper defense lessons to counter anything those Deatheaters may throw at you," she continued eyes ablaze. It was the first time he had ever seen her eyes like that, they had always been distant and lifeless, before this day. "There's a war coming Draco, and I want you safe to fight in that war," her eyes welling up with tears, "I want you to help bring him down."

Draco knew there was a double meaning to the 'him' she talked about. He knew that she secretly meant father, and he knew that she no longer had any interest in continuing the charade she had been living, he wasn't deaf, he heard their screams through the manor, the summer before, he beat her for not supporting the Dark Lord as devoutly as he did. He loved his mother, and his father, and having them divided like this made his stomach do turns in the most unpleasant way.

'She must have had one hell of a talk today,' he thought.

"Alright," he said, "if it'll make you happy."

"It makes me happy knowing that you are safe, and even happier once I know that you are in the halls of Hogwarts again," she said smiling through her tears.

He got up and walked up to his mother and let her wrap her arms around him and cry softly into his shoulder. 'There, there, mother,' he thought to himself while comforting his mother, 'he wont hurt you again,' he vowed silently. She eventually got a hold of herself and took composure once again, thanks to the charmed make up she wore, her face didn't even look like she had been crying.

"I'll be right back," she said and disapparated.

Draco took a deep breath and walked out of the kitchen to find Hermione sitting in the recliner once again, only this time she had her nose buried in Standard Book of Spells Grade Six, mumbling to herself. He decided mess with Hermione by grabbing one of the sofa pillows and. . .  
"OUCH," she squealed, "Malfoy what was that for?!"

"For being a bookworm," he said smirking.

"Oh, your going to get it now Ferret Boy," she screamed, grabbing another sofa pillow and started towards Draco.

He was ready for her and ducked the pillow during her first swing but got a full blow of it on her back swing, and stumbled to the floor. He decided to play dead to try to make her feel guilty, but it backfired. She must have seen through his plan and started to bombard him with pillows. He groaned and started grabbing the pillows thrown at him and fought back against the brunette.

It was about ten minutes later that Mrs. Granger came into the living room to stop the war and tell them that it was time for dinner. The two, flushed from their recent activity, fell to the floor and argued on who won the pillow fight.

Mrs. Malfoy came back one minute before dinner started accompanied by two house elves. Hermione had been helping her mother set the table and noticed them only when she got to the table and found it already set for dinner, and heard their squeaky voices piping up to their masters.

"Does mistress want us to do anything else," piped the knee high house elf.

"Narcissa, just what are those creatures doing," she heard her mother ask.

"I went home and had them gather Draco's things, so that he wouldn't have to go back to the manor," said Narcissa.

"If that's all their doing then they can take his things up to the guest bedroom upstairs," her mother said.

Hermione turned to Malfoy and whispered, "you're staying here?"

"I guess I am," he replied unsurely.

The house elves came back and Mrs. Malfoy told them to go back to the manor. Then they all settled down to dinner, joined by Mr. Granger five minutes later. They chatted and told about their day, and Malfoy continued to tell about his interesting conversation with the janitor he met at restaurant they had lunch in this afternoon. After dinner Hermione decided to introduce Draco to the living room, one appliance at a time.

She was half way through telling him what you put in the VCR when the doorbell rang in the middle of her speech about that not to put in the VCR. She went to the door and was surprised to find Michael standing in front of her.

"Michael," she screamed ad the tall 17 year old boy rushed into the house grabbing Hermione in the process and spinning her around bumping into pictures and tables clumsily.

"Heard you were back," he said putting down Hermione on the couch, "you got company?"

"Oh," said Hermione looking at Malfoy, "this is Draco Malfoy, um. . . he's staying with us for the rest of the summer."

"What happened here," said Michael taking a look around the room.

"What, oh," Hermione looked around the living room, it was still a mess from the pillow fight. "We had a pillow fight, you should have seen it . . . I won," she finished.

"You did not," Malfoy spat.

"Did so," Hermione spat back, "you got lucky since dinner started."

"How 'bout we call it a truce for now," Michael broke in quickly, "don't want you guys starting another one."

"Fine," they both said at once.

"Hermione, I just dropped by to see if you were really home," Michael said, pulling her into a hug, "you're never around anymore for summer. How do you expect me to do my best friend duties if my best friend is never around?"

"I'm sorry Michael," said Hermione, "but the good thing about this summer is that I'm here till August 31, so you have plenty of time to fulfill your duties before this summer is over." She broke the hug and said goodnight to her friend.

She came back and sat next to Draco, who had a stupid grin on his face.

"He likes you," he said smiling.

"He's my best friend Draco," Hermione said, "anything we do that's not in the best friend category and transcends to the . . .the. . .the," she was struggling to say the word, "boyfriend category," she whispered ,"is just gross, Malfoy."

"Fine," said Draco, " deny all you want he still likes you."

"He does not," screamed Hermione hitting him over the head with a sofa pillow.

"Really," began Malfoy, "because if think back just right I remember you doing th same thing to Weasely, Granger, don't you remember the Yule Ball," he taunted.

"Shut it ferret face," Hermione said annoyed. She did remember the Yule Ball. . . but Hermione assumed that hey had reached a silent agreement, since they never mentioned it again. 'What is happening with my life,' Hermione thought, 'is this fate's sick idea of a joke, having her best friends fall for her?' "Whatever, let's just get back to what not to stick into the VCR," Hermione said changing the subject.  
Around 9o'clock the parents were done with what ever it was they were discussing in the kitchen, and Mrs. Malfoy told them all that she would be leaving for France, to hide under an assumed name, and would rarely be in touch after September. After the hugging and crying was all done Mrs. Malfoy bid her new found friends good bye, and disapparated.

It was getting late and Malfoy didn't seem to tire from the 500 channels off the satellite, he sat amazed at the never ending entertainment at his fingertips. Hermione yawned, and told him that it was time to go to bed. He whined but complied. He followed her up the stairs, and she lead him to the guest bed room next to her room. She pointed to the bath and warned him not to stick small metal objects in the power outlets, she didn't want to have to send a fried teenager to a muggle hospital and try to explain just how he got electrocuted. She said good night and went to her room. 'It's been one tough day,' she thought to herself as she slipped out of her clothes and into her pajamas, 'who knew that he would end up on her doorstep this morning and end up spending the rest of the summer with her, of all people.' She climbed into bed and quickly drifted off to sleep, dreaming about how she had spent her day today in an odd different way, where Malfoy was a hippo and she was a meerkat and everything was set in a zombie movie.


	6. THEIR FIRST WEEK

**Unexpected Series of Events**

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Nor will I ever own them because I am poor. If only I were the one that came up the Harry Potter franchise. . . them I would be filthy stinking rich!! Not some broke ass teenager in nowheresville California.

**FIRST WEEK**

Hermione got up the next morning to find a barn owl pecking at her window. She got up and let the bird into her room. She took the letter off of the owl's leg and recognized the Hogwarts seal on the parchment. She opened the letter and read her new book list. 'No more reading George's old books,' thought Hermione.

She got up and grabbed a change of clothes and headed toward the bathroom. She turned on the hot water and waited for the water to get just right. She stepped into the shower and mused over the past days events. Draco Malfoy was now staying with her for the summer and they were becoming friends? 'This can't be right,' she thought, he was nothing like the mean and narcissistic boy she had grown to hate with a passion. She turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, and began to go through her now daily ritual,(dry hair, tame hair, put on a little make up, and tame hair some more.)

She came down stairs to find Malfoy conversing with her father and eating his pancakes absentmindedly. She pulled out her own seat next to Malfoy and started to pile pancakes on to her plate. She listened faintly to her father's conversation with Malfoy.

". . . So these quaffles. . . they're not the one's that knock off the players. . ." their conversation went. Draco continued to explain the concept of quidditch to the balding man. He noticed Hermione walk into the kitchen and quietly start to eat. He continued to tell Mr. Granger all about quidditch, until he finally grasped the basis of the wizarding game. . . which took a while. He looked at Hermione and thought how could this girl be the spawn of this man?? It took him forever to get quidditch, yet Hermione could figure out the arithmancy equations without even breaking a sweat. She looked up at him and mouthed 'what,' it was then that he realized that he was staring, and with a fork loaded with food that had not reached his mouth.

"Sorry," he said, snapping out of his daze, "does you're hair look different today," he asked changing the subject.

"Oh, I uh, didn't straighten it today," she replied, running her fingers through her wavy hair. "It's too much of a hassle to straighten it everyday," she added, "I know it doesn't seem like it but I'm a very lazy person when I want to be."

"That, I find hard to believe," he said while piling more pancakes on to his plate, " little miss bookworm a SLOB, what is the world coming to?"

"When I said that I didn't mean I was a slob," Hermione started, "I simply meant that I can afford to be lazy sometimes, since I can manage my time much more wisely than my other friends."

"You're a weird one Granger," said Malfoy, "so did you get your Hogwarts book list early so you could be a smart ass bookworm for the teachers?"

"No, I just borrowed George Weasely's old books for a little light reading," said Hermione frowning at his description of her studiousness, "I got my book list this morning as well, Mr. Mean and Narcissistic."

"Goody," he said in mock cheerfulness, "so when do you propose we go get our books?

"Oh, I think this afternoon," said Hermione, "the sooner the better, don't you think?"

"Yeah," said Draco half heartedly, "the sooner the better." he just realized that he would be reentering the wizarding world and he knew that there would be someone there that would recognize him. And if they recognize him. . . he would be putting not only himself but Hermione's family in very great dragon dung. He sighed, and continued to eat his pancakes.

"Granger," he said looking at Hermione, "do you think it's safe for me to go out in public?"

"What do you mean," she said trying to comprehend just what he meant with SAFE.

"I mean. . . mother wanted me to stay low right," he looked at her as she nodded unsurely, "well going to Diagon Alley to go shopping isn't really lying low. What if someone recognizes me and tries to take me to the Dark Lord, what if they hurt your family or worse. . ."

They stayed quiet for a while, thinking over their own thoughts.

"Well I do have an idea. . ." said Hermione.

"What kind of idea," asked Draco.

"Well. . . Moody had given me these cloaks," said Hermione, "they hide the face of the person whose wearing it, so you could wear it and go to the Alley with no one even knowing that it's you under the cloak."

Draco thought the idea over for a moment. 'This could work, I could go about my business right beside Granger and no one would know the better.'

"I like it," said Draco, "I can pretend to be some wizard whose on his way to Knockturn Alley. So this cloak. . . will it make me look like a mountain troll or will it just hide my face in dark shadows?"

"Hide your face," said Hermione after swallowing her orange juice.

So that afternoon they got ready to go to Diagon Alley. She handed him the cloak and helped him in working the disguises hood. At four Mrs. Granger came home from her office and took the two teenagers to Diagon Alley. She pulled up to the record store, and the two lead Mrs. Granger into the Leaky Cauldron.

"You two kids just go on with out me," said Mrs. Granger, "just come back here when you're done." she hugged the teens and started a conversation with Tom the bartender.

They went to the brick wall and Hermione started tapping bricks. The doorway to Diagon Alley opened right before their eyes.

"Time to pull up your hood, Malfoy," said Hermione.

"I feel mysterious already," he joked. They went to Flourish and Blotts and bought their books without incident.

"This feels so weird," whispered Hermione.

"This was your idea," said Malfoy.

"It seemed good on paper," said Hermione.

"You never wrote it down," chimed Malfoy.

Hermione took a deep breath while coming out of the Magical Menagerie. She turned to the store across from them. It was the Weaselys Wizarding Wheezes, and the whole Weasely family and Harry were in there.

"Do you mind if we go in there," she said while pointing to the shop across from them.

"Do I have to talk to any of them," he said sourly.

"No," said Hermione, "but don't buy anything either."

"Why not," asked Malfoy.

"Because you will be staying in my home for the next four weeks, and I don't want to wake up to an indoor swamp," said Hermione.

"Whatever," he said entering the joke shop and parting ways with her.

"HERMIONE," screamed the shop.

"Hi you guys," she said to the red haired wave coming towards her.

She hugged all of the family one by one and a certain red haired boy was the last to receive his hug. She felt it awkward, the way he held on just a little bit longer than the rest had. She shook the feeling off of her, 'I wont let Malfoy get to me, he was just kidding when he said Ron liked me,' she thought to herself.

"Hey you guys," said Hermione after breaking her tight embrace with Ron.

"Hermione, did you get Pig this morning," asked Ron.

Hermione frowned. Malfoy. He must have intercepted her letter..

"Um, no," said Hermione.

"What," Ron exclaimed, "well he probably got lost. . . so how has your summer been?"

"Ron, I've only been gone from the burrow for less than a week," said Hermione, "and you just saw me at Harry's birthday party at Grimauld Place." She was starting to feel smothered again. Harry sensing her plight decided to change the subject.

"That was some party though," said Harry uncertainly, "right Hermione?"

"Oh yes," mentally thanking Harry for discontinuing the stiffness between her and Ron.

Draco wandered through the Weaselys joke shop. He passed candy jars labeled with ridiculous names such as Ton Tongue Toffee's and questionable looking pastries. He walked far from the congregation of red hair around Hermione. He felt a pang of jealousy towards her. He didn't have a second family like she did. Of course he had Lord Voldemort's followers that would take him in, but they were all cheats and murderers on all levels of deceitfulness. He turned and saw Hermione breaking an exceptionally long hug with Ron. She looked helplessly around the store.

He continued to roam about the store. He picked up something called Entrancing Catnip. 'It sounds like something you find at the Menagerie,' he thought to himself. He continued wandering, catching bits and pieces of their conversation. Hermione kept dodging around Ron's words. He chuckled to himself. He had gotten to her. Even though you couldn't see it he was smiling stupidly underneath the hood of the charmed cloak.

'Are we becoming friends,' he thought to himself. 'Maybe.'

He looked out of the window and saw Pansy Parkinson walk into the store looking more and more like a pug that was repeatedly rammed headlong into a brick wall. His stomach dropped several places.

"Well, well, well," Pansy said, "if it isn't little miss know it all mudblood, Granger."

Her girlish voice sent shivers down his spine. He looked around and saw the cavalry start to form. Crabbe and Goyle were something like that to him. Except that Hermione's friends were noticeably less muscular than his two thugs.

He watched them exchange insults. Hermione obviously won since Pansy turned an ugly shade of red and orange blotches. He could tell she was about to do something really malicious when all of the sudden one of the twins broke in. . .

"Uh miss," Fred or George said, "if you're going to start a ruckus we're going to have to ask you to leave. Or we'll be forced to call some of the local authorities."

Draco smiled. Pansy turned on her heel and left the store. The whole store erupted in laughter, even Draco was laughing to himself.

Hermione looked over at him and excused herself from the gathering of Weaselys and gestured for him to follow after her. Not wanting the Weaselys (mostly Ron) to suspect anything he held back and followed after her a couple minutes later.

"What took you so long," said Hermione, looking much like Mc Gonagall

"What did you want me to do," said Draco in an exasperated tone, "follow you out like some weird stalker?!"

She didn't say anything.

"Fine whatever, let's just go home now," he said, "I'm starving."

They made their way out of Diagon Alley and met up with Hermione's mom. They stopped at a fast food restaurant whose mascot was a six foot tall clown dressed in a yellow jump suit. He found it all so very ridiculous. Plus, the clown freaked him out a little. When he told Hermione this she laughed at him.

They made it back to the Granger's house and Hermione positioned herself on the couch and started to read her new books. Draco rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at her. She put the book down obviously miffed and pulled out a pair of "ear covers" and stopped paying attention to him. He grabbed the "rebote" and started channel surfing. He came to a channel that was showing the movie he had just seen the day before. He settled down right next to her and started to watch, Night of the Living Dead, again. The doorbell rang.

"Draco dear could you get that please," Mrs. Granger's voice came from upstairs. Draco sighed and looked over at Hermione whose ears were now emitting a loud musical sound. He sighed once again and went to the door and opened it. It was Hermione's "friend" Michael.  
"Is Hermione home right now," he asked.

Draco opened the door wider and gestured towards the girl on the couch. Then all of a sudden it dawned on him that this Michael was a muggle and Hermione was at the moment reading a "magic" book. He walked over to her and pulled the ear covers from her head and whispered the arrival of Michael and told her to stash the books.

'This is going to be a long week,' he thought to himself.

Their first week passed by with out much incident. Draco learned how to use the microwave and surprisingly enough they even helped each other out on their summer homework. (More like Hermione helped him out. . . ) Several breakouts of pillow fights and one particular night they got into a really big food fight after watching Psycho.

Draco had snuck up behind her and scared the popcorn bowl out of her lap. The fight had escalated to the point where they were covered in slightly melted rocky road ice-cream.

"Ooooooohhhhh, Draco Malfoy," shrieked Hermione, "I'm gonna get you for this." She squeezed the remaining contents of the ketchup/catsup (you're pick) bottle at the boy laying on the kitchen floor. She heard him gurgle as she covered his face with the ketchup (I prefer that one). He grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the floor and started mashing a mixture of Cheetos, popcorn, and pudding into her hair.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING," came Mrs. Granger's voice. She had apparently walked in and saw the whole mess and was on the verge of fainting at the sight of the mess.

"Oh, hi mum," said Hermione getting up pushing Draco off of her. (Not like that) Draco tried to get up but failed. He simply fell down to the floor at the attempt. Hermione bent down and grabbed the blonde boy by the arm and helped him up.

"You two are not going anywhere until this mess is cleaned up," Mrs. Granger said calmly, eying the walls covered with mustard, ketchup, melted ice-cream, and her gleaming white counters now sticky and covered with an assortment of junk food.

The two teens looked on the floor and mumbled a 'yes ma'am.' They spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and laughing at their appearances. Around seven thirty Mr. Granger came home smelling of mouth wash and exhausted. He took one look at the kitchen and the two teens and burst out laughing. His mistake was not watching out for the small glob of pudding that had finally made its way down to the floor and onto Mr. Granger's coat. By the time they had finished cleaning it was 9:30 and they were dead tired and hungry.

"I ordered pizza for you kids," called Mrs. Granger from the loft upstairs, "it's on the coffee table."

"What's pizza," asked Draco.

"Er, well, it's a circular flat bread, covered with tomato sauce, and cheese, that's baked into an oven and well. . . you'll just have to eat it and judge for yourself if you like it," said Hermione not really interested in his question and started to make her way towards the living room. He followed her to the couch and watched her open a large flat box, inside was a big cheesy mess of pepperoni, bacon, and sausage. He caught a whiff of the pizza's scent and his mouth started to water. He didn't even know what it was and he wanted to gobble it all up in one bite.  
Hermione pulled up a slice of pizza and loaded it onto a paper plate and handed it to him.

"Eat," she ordered as she started to pile her own of slice of pizza.

He picked the pizza slice up and took a bite, backwards. Hermione took one look at him and immediately corrected his hold on the pizza. He kept eating through the box and found that he had eaten half of the contents of the box until Hermione went to grab her third slice.

"You're a pig," said Hermione.

"No," said Draco, "I'm just experiencing life for the first time, so when do you think we can have pizza again," he said while downing his seventh slice.

"Never if we're going to have to buy a separate box for you," said Hermione.

Snort. (Draco)

"Oh, yeah, you got a letter from Weasely this morning," said Draco starting is eighth slice.

"Why didn't I get it this morning, ferret face," asked Hermione.

"Don't call me that," said Draco, "I just thought you might want a break from the little red fuzz ball."

"Little," said Hermione, "he's like six feet tall."

"He's little in my eyes," said Draco, "with that temper of his it's a wonder he doesn't get his ass kicked as a daily regiment to keep him in line." He rolled his eyes, taking another bite of his pizza slice.

Hermione changed the subject after that. It wasn't that she agreed with him, completely. It's just that he did have a point when he said Ron did have a temper. He would explode if he ever found out that she was having fun with his worst enemy. Well, Draco isn't that bad. The way he acted at school was an act for his father and his bloodline's sake. Now that his father was out of the picture she didn't really know how he would act now that she had gotten to know the real him.

They talked about school, their friends, how ugly Pansy is, and other things for the rest of the night. They went on into the late night. It was about 3o'clock in the morning when their musings had tapered off, and they decided to watch t.v. for the rest of the night. . .


	7. FORTUNE COOKIES

**Unexpected Series of Events**

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THEM. NEVER HAVE. NEVER WILL.

**AN:** Argh!! September 19 2003!! Happy "Talk Like A Pirate Day" everyone!! Sorry I haven't updated as much as a certain "Fairy" would have like me to but I sort of . . . kind of . . . got into a little trouble with my P.C. But it's all fixed now!! Read and Review!

**Fortune Cookies**

Hermione woke up the next morning in Malfoy's arms. It was still grey outside and the t.v. was still on. She would have made to move but as soon as she was awake she was asleep once more. She snuggled up to Malfoy and continued to dream about nonsense.

Draco awoke minutes later to find that he had his arms around Hermione. He let out a long breath and moved to see what time it was. Six thirty. 'It's Saturday,' he thought, and got up and looked down at the girl he had just technically "slept with." She was sleeping peacefully, and grumbled a little. 'I guess I can let you sleep the rest of the morning here,' he thought to himself and placed his hands under Hermione and carried her upstairs to her room. He heard her mumble softly as he lowered her onto the bed. 'She's not half bad once you get her asleep' he thought, 'I could definitely do without the bossy know-it-all attitude . . . but I guess I could try to be a little nicer. Just for the summer.' He sighed and covered Hermione with her comforter.

He walked down the hall and went to his room and got under his own covers and drifted back to sleep. He woke up hours later around . . . noon, and got up and got dressed. He walked out into the kitchen and found a note on the counter. It was from Mrs. Granger, and she left pieces of paper and said to order food for themselves that day. He scratched his head and wondered how he was going to pay for food with pieces of paper, with pictures of people on them. He looked around the kitchen and his eyes landed on the calling machine and decided to brave its workings.

"Hello," he spoke into the dial tone, "I would like some PIZZA!" He turned around the kitchen hoping to find instructions to the "fellytrone."

His eyes landed on Hermione, who was fighting a fit of giggles. She was still dressed in her pajamas and was watching him, yell into the receiver. He looked at her with the help me look.

"Here," she said taking the phone from him, "guess I never taught you how to use the telephone."

"You know I would have figured it out eventually," he said frowning.

"Yes I'm sure you would have, but I just don't think placing pizza orders in some obscure part of India would be a comfort to my parents' phone bill," she said while dialing the phone.

"What are you ordering," he asked curiously.

"Oh, how do you feel about Chinese," said Hermione.

"WHAT," he exclaimed, "we're going to eat Chinese People?!"

Hermione couldn't help but burst out laughing after he had said that. The person on the other line was asking her what she would like to order and Hermione could barely answer without having to break out into fits of laughter every few words.

"We're not going to eat Chinese people," she said trying to regain composure, "we're going to eat Chinese FOOD." She saw the look of comprehension come over Malfoy's face and he too, joined in on her laughter.

The food came about an hour later and they started to chow down in front of the television, since that's where they ate most of their meals anyway. Hermione opened the boxes of steaming food and handed Malfoy a pair of chop sticks.

He looked at her with a look of confused wonder on his face.

"What am I supposed to do with these," he asked brandishing the sticks in her face.

"Eat with them," said Hermione snapping her chopsticks apart.

"And why can't we use forks," said Malfoy, "like normal people do?"

"Because you get to really experience the culture by at least trying to do it their way," said Hermione deftly trying to work her chopsticks.  
"Sure, whatever you say Granger," he said while getting up, "I'm going to get some forks just incase you give up on the chopsticks." He left and went into the kitchen and reemerged with plates and forks.

Hermione sat back as Malfoy inhaled their lunch. She looked at him as he downed the Beef w/ oyster sauce, then went straight to the sweet and sour pork. She watched in awe as he acted like a human garbage disposal.

"You're a pig," she said while spooning herself some fried rice, (she had given up on the chopsticks), "you're like a bottomless pit."  
"I love Chinese food," he exclaimed out of his already stuffed mouth.

"Whatever," said Hermione rolling her eyes, "you said the same thing about pizza last night. I'm going to have to find something that you don't like, just so you don't gobble it all up before everyone else gets a bite."

Hermione looked around and found the fortune cookies. She handed him one and watched him pop it into his mouth without reading his fortune first.

He choked.

"What on earth is in these things," he screamed as he pulled out the cookie from his mouth and examined the contents of the partially chewed cookie. He picked out the piece of paper and read it.

"Trying new things may lead to unfortunate choking"

"Is this supposed to be funny," he yelled looking at Hermione who was suppressing a fit of giggles.

"Sorry," she gasped, "I forgot that you didn't know about the fortunes!" Malfoy had rushed to her and tackled her to the ground and started to tickle her mercilessly. She kicked and screamed underneath him, her fortune lying on the floor unread and forgotten.

The rest of their time together seemed to just fly away from their grasps. They spent most of their time at the old Bijou theater, that showed old classics and strange independent films. They had grown quiet close. They still ruffled each others feathers when one did something to annoy the other, and Hermione discovered a very interesting quality about Draco Malfoy that no one else knows. . .

THEEEEEE EEENNNDDDDD

FOR NOW. . . .

THANK YOU'S

fairylightbabe89- I love you. I really do. In the most platonic love possible. For serious. The first review was cute. The following ones. . .er. . . weren't as cute. I'm not really used to getting um. . . threats. . . no matter how . . . um. . . intricately disguised they are. Did you not read my author's note about the "other story." GOSH. Soo I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told The Elven Princess, "you cannot go around commanding the insane." I think after the third review. . . you DID go insane. So to at least make up for being gone so long this chapter is DEDICATED TO YOU. I hope you come and join us back on planet earth soon.

Malferz- are you serious?? My chapters longer?? My chapters longer?! catches breath I'm glad as pickle that you like my story. I like yours too. But hey I'm not the only one that could stand to make their chapters longer. . .

The-Rouge-Thorn: Hey thanks!! That was very insightful of you. That was what I was actually going for. I get so sick and tired of FF writers diving straight into the snog sesh, it's like they never heard of plot development, or fore shadowing before at all.

Tropic, klee-babe, DanceChic0869, kind of detached, TaoRe, Artemis MoonClaw, dracoishot7771, pInk pUnk rOckEr 12, and fifteenstones: I LOVE YOU GUYS!! PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING AND JUNK!! IF THERE IS SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T LIKE PLEASE TELL ME. I PERSONALLY THINK IT MAKES ME A BETTER WRITER. SOOOOO PLEASE REVIEW AND BLOAT MY SOON TO BE DEVELOPED EGO!

A FRIEND OF MINE POINTED OUT THAT I WAS BEING A LITTLE. . . UM. . . DEMANDING WHEN I ASKED YOU GUYS TO LOOK AT MY OTHER STORY THE YEARS THAT PASS (LOL SHAMELESS PROMO) BEFORE I WOULD UPDATE MY STORY. . . I APOLOGIZE. AND MAYBE IN THE FUTURE WHEN I WRITE "PLEASE READ MY OTHER STORY", THAT YOU GUYS DO IT AT FIRST GLANCE AND NOT WHEN I'M THREATENING TO DISCONTINUE A STORY. . .

SO PRESS THAT BUTTON THAT MAKES ALL MY CHAPTERS HAPPEN. . . .

LOVE PEACE CHICKEN GREASE

SUPER SYCOH AWAY!!


	8. BACK TO HOGWARTS

**Unexpected Series of Events**

DISCLAIMER: EVERYTHING, AND EVERYONE YOU RECOGNIZE IS NOT MINE. I UNFORTUNATELY DO NOT MAKE ANY MONEY AT ALL WRITING THIS STORY AT ALL. MAYBE WHEN THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO OWN EVERYTHING ARE TIRED RAKING ALL THAT MONEY THAT THEY'LL GIVE IT TO ME FOR FREE. SIGH A GIRL CAN DREAM RIGHT?

**BACK TO HOGWARTS**

Hermione got up the morning of September 1st with a heavy heart. The past night's conversation came flooding back to her.

"So, how's this . . . um friendship going to work out at Hogwarts," asked Malfoy.

"I don't know," said Hermione closing her books for the last time. "I don't suppose, your, friends will take kindly to your befriending muggle borns," said Hermione crisply.

"So, are you willing to pretend that our friendship never existed," said Malfoy standing up, a hurt look playing upon his eyes.

"Malfoy, in two years, your mother will take you away from this place to start a new life. You can go public with anything after that," she said, and crossed the room and put a comforting arm around Malfoy. They had grown very close in that short month, and they both hated to pretend it never existed.

Hermione got dressed sullenly, and went down stairs. Malfoy was already seated at the table, moving bits of his food around on his plate. He looked just as depressed as Hermione felt. 'We should be happy today,' thought Hermione, 'but what's to be happy about?'

She sat down and started to help herself to the food placed on the table. Malfoy looked up at her and gave her a faint smile. They ate silently for several minutes. Starting to feel awkward Hermione decided to break the odd silence.

"So, do you remember what we're going to do today," asked Hermione.

"Yes, I get off at Kings Cross first, take my trunk and head into the station, while you guys drive around for a while," he replied. "Then you come along, pretend that I'm a stupid git, and hurry off with your 'friends,'" he finished with the weird emphasis on 'friends.'

"Um, yeah," said Hermione looking back down at her plate. She was starting to feel the "OLD" Draco Malfoy beginning to resurface right before her eyes. She got up and excused herself from the table. Hermione did not want to be around him when he finally became the stupid ferret brained git, that she would love to throttle. She went to her room and did the last check on her school things and was distracted by the stuffed animal Michael had given her as an early birthday present. She walked over to it and wrapped her arms around it. It was a brown puppy dog, that made her immensely feel better. It was the only comfort of her other life that she was going to take to Hogwarts. She strode over to her trunk and safely tucked the animal away. She then grabbed her cat carrier and went down stairs to go find Crookshanks. She passed the "OLD" Draco as descended down the stairs. She didn't look up to meet his gaze, she just kept going down the stairs concentrating on getting her cat into the carrier.

Draco mentally kicked himself as Hermione got up and left the table. 'Why did you say that' screamed his conscience. He felt like he was going off to fight a war. Leaving to another country and may never come back. He felt himself reverting to his previous self. Mean, narcissistic, and especially mean. He felt like such a jerk, that even HE wanted to beat himself up for talking like that to his first REAL friend. He fought with himself for about fifteen minutes, until he finally made up his mind to go do something about his attitude.

He started to climb the stairs, not knowing that Hermione was also coming down from the loft. He looked up and saw her keep her gaze steadily on the carpet, he felt even worse after that as he stared after her. He walked into his room and went to the oak desk, on it sat two rune disks that fit in the palm of his hand. He pocketed them both and went downstairs once again. He saw Hermione on the floor behind the couch trying to coax an angry Crookshanks out of his hiding place.

"Need some help," Draco said plopping down on the floor with her. She gasped and looked over at him with a frightened expression. She smiled at him and with a sigh started to speak.

"Glad to see you're feeling much more cheerier," she said sitting up.

"Thought I should cherish my last moments livin' it up with a friend, but I guess getting a cat into it's carrier is good too," he said feeling much better that she wasn't angry with him.

They were bent over trying with their heads touching the floor, and needless to say they did look ridiculous with their bums int the air. It took a whole thirty minutes of "Here Crookshanks," to get the fat ginger cat to comply with their pleas. They spent the last forty minutes talking about everything they did over the summer, and laughing about their crazy mishaps. 'I'm going to miss this,' thought Draco.

"Hey Hermione," he said as they neared Kings Cross. She turned to look at him.

"What," she asked.

"I wanna give you something," said Draco as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the rune disks, "consider it an early birthday present. One's for you and one's for me." He handed her a disk.

"Wow, Malfoy," said Hermione, "these rune disks are supposed to be really rare. How did you get one?"

"I have er, connections," he said smiling, "these are the super rare kind of druid artifacts." He pulled his our and demonstrated what he meant. He rearranged the runes and completed his message. 'DON'T EVER FORGET.' Then he gestured for her to look at her disk. She looked down and her eyes widened with amazement.

"Malfoy," she squealed throwing her arms around him, "of course I wont!"

The hug completely caught Draco by surprise. It was something that was very tenuous and foreign to him, that he didn't know what to do next. Hermione finally broke her hold from him and started to work with her disk.

"Lucky we're both fluent in Old Celtic. This way we can keep our friendship at school without exposing it," he said.

"Malfoy," said Hermione, "I never thought I would ever say this but, no offense, but that's brilliant!!"

The car slowed to park outside the station and Draco got out of the car, and started to gather his thing from the trunk. He loaded his trunk onto a cart and stared back at the car that was now driving away. He tried to catch a glimpse of Hermione, but couldn't since the windows were rolled all the way up. He sighed and proceeded to push his cart into Kings Cross. As he walked through Platform 9 3/4 he was greeted by the large train that would take him to Hogwarts. There were already others there and they happily chatted with their returning friends. Draco couldn't help but feel jealous, he found an empty compartment and pulled out his rune disk, and was surprised at what the runes read now. 'MISS ME ALREADY?' He smiled to himself, and returned the disk into his pocket. 'This is going to be along year,' he thought as his mind wandered back to their first escapade around London. . .


	9. SUMMER ONCE AGAIN

**U****nexpected Series of Events**

Disclaimer: I don't own it. I am not some blond English woman receiving oodles and oodles of money from EVERYONE I am simply a teenage girl, who likes Harry Potter.

**AN: **JUST SO YOU'RE NOT CONFUSED, YOU HAVE TO INSERT BOOK 6 RIGHT ABOUT HERE. I DON'T REALLY WANT TO CHANGE ANYTHING MRS. ROWLING DOES DURING THAT YEAR. BUT I PROMISE THAT YEAR SEVEN IS GONNA BE ALL MINE!

**AN2: **Nah, Rowling hates me, pretend that sixth year went great and Dumbledore _didn't _you-know-what.

**SUMMER ONCE AGAIN**

We last left our two protagonists on their way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but now that year has passed and they look forward to their summer eagerly. They have faced a great many trials and overcame the m flawlessly; but their greatest triumph, was keeping their friendship from prying eyes and meddling persons.

It is summer once again, and they are now stepping off of the Hogwarts Express. They have grown much and longed to be themselves again. They longed to laugh and apologize for each other's actions, the y longed to talk, and spend endless summer nights watching movies and discussing some intellectual topic. They wanted to be friends again.

Hermione stepped off of the train and was soon joined by her two friends Harry and Ron. They laughed and started to walk towards the platform. The y were stopped by a very worried looking Neville Longbottom, who was asking if they had seen his toad, Trevor, then Harry and Hermione chatted with the Weasleys about their year.

"Hermione, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, "would you be joining us at the Burrow, this summer?" The plump woman smiled at her sweetly.  
"Yeah, Hermione," piped Ron, "how's about coming to the Burrow, for old times sake."

"Er," said Hermione, she didn't really want to spend her summer with the red haired family this summer, she had spent enough time with Ron and Ginny to last her another lifetime, not that she was complaining, but this summer she was going to spend it with her OTHER best friend.

"I don't really think so," she replied, "my mum and dad said they were planning something special for this summer so I don't really want to miss out on it."

"Can't you do it next summer," blurted Ron. He caught himself and flushed crimson.

"Ronald Weasley," said Mrs. Weasley, "could you be anymore rude?" She took her son and pulled him by the ear. "Sorry you can't make it dear," she let go of Ron's ear, then turned to Harry, "how about you Harry, would you like to join us this summer?"

'As if you had to ask,' thought Hermione. She knew that Harry would say yes, and her mind started to drift elsewhere. She caught sight of the Dursleys, looking at the congregation of wizarding folk with a mixed expression of fear and extreme disgust. She examined them as she usually did. Vernon Dursley, a fat man in his late thirties, looked as if he was surrounded by something foul smelling. Petunia Dursley, a skinny woman with uniform brown hair drawn to a loose bun in the back of her head. And of course, Dudley Dursley, who was just plain FAT. He looked like he had swallowed four of five 2nd graders, and was dressed by a clown. They were a considerable amount of feet AWAY from the magical gathering, and wanted nothing more than to get up and leave.

Draco walked through the magical barrier of 9 3/4 and looked around for Hermione. He saw her surrounded by a large amount of red hair and freckles, and a black head. She was hugging a bunch of people and giving her good-byes.

He fought off Pansy and was now alone. He saw Hermione looking at an odd looking family. A fat man, a severely skinny woman, and a teenage boy that was about the size of a small manatee but looked like a human. They had a scared and annoyed look on their faces and looked like they felt that they were better than everyone around them.

He remembered being like that. Back when he was young, and blind. Back when he idolized his father and believed in everything he said. That was before he had developed a conscience, and learned that his father's beliefs were not accepted by the majority. All he wanted now was to clean the Malfoy name, so that the future generations would not have to suffer through the consequences of the past's stupidity. He wanted the future to be proud of their past, and not have to be persecuted for their ancestors ideas.

He watched Potter walk over to the family and his jaw dropped. He could not believe that those people were his last living relatives. For once in his life, he, Draco Malfoy, pitied Harry Potter. He would hate to have to go home every summer to a place that he was not wanted. He looked back over at Hermione, now standing by herself, who now had the same look of sympathy for Harry, as Draco wore now.

He sighed and started to walk out of the station. He knew that she would see him and follow him. He walked into the parking lot and found Mr. Granger and his car. He was soon joined by Hermione, and he helped her load her trunk into the back of the car and they both got into the backseat of the car. The car started and it pulled out of the parking lot. He and Hermione immediately started a conversation about everything: how their year went, the weather, Peeves, what they were going to do this summer and so on.

Draco felt relieved that they could settle back into their old grooves so easily, he was afraid that it would be awkward and they would have to take time to get to know each other all over again. They laughed and talked all through the ride, and didn't even notice that they were home.

"We're home," said Mr. Granger turning around and looking back at them. Draco looked out and was confused. This was not the same house he had stayed in last summer. They were in some suburban neighborhood, surrounded by houses of different sizes and shapes. He got out of the car and looked around him.

"This was my grandmother's home," said Hermione looking at Draco's bewildered expression. "She died and left it in her will. This house is ours but we rarely stay here though."

"Oh," said Draco. He looked up at the two story house with its sunny welcoming lawn, and its graceful stature. It reminded him very much of the Malfoy Manor, only it was more inviting. He helped Hermione carry her trunk into the large house. As he entered the house he was greeted by the ever welcoming scent of pizza. Freshly baked and waiting to be eaten.

He walked into the kitchen and was surprised at the sight that was played out before him. His mother, rising from the kitchen table and walking over to him to engulf him in a mighty hug. He was in such a state of shock that he could say absolutely nothing, (and this rarely happened.) He wrapped his own arms around his mother's body and welcomed her embrace.

"I've missed you Draco, dear," she whispered into his ears.

"Mum, I didn't know you were going to be here," he said slowly.

"I wanted to surprise you," she said her beautiful face breaking into a smile, "I've missed my baby dragon to bits." She pulled away and took in the sight of her son, still smiling.

"Mum," Draco said blushing, "I've told you before, don't call me that." He looked over at Hermione who had just come down the stairs, she was smiling mischievously. She walked over and received a hug from his mother as well.

"It's nice to see you again Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione said.

"Oh, Hermione dear," said Draco's mother, "the divorce was finalized months ago. Please call me Mrs. Black."

"That's enough pleasantries," muttered Mrs. Granger cutting in, "come, all of you. There's pizza to be eaten. The children must be tired from their journey." She ushered everyone to the dining area and brought in three, rather large, boxes of pizza. As everyone settled into a seat, everyone watched in awe as Draco took in slice after slice of pizza. Draco didn't notice at all until Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs.

"What," he asked annoyed.

"You're eating all of the pizza," replied Hermione underneath her breath. Draco looked down and saw that he had gone through a box and a half of the large slice pizza. He decided to stop after that. Hermione excused herself from the table and Draco followed after her. They went up to the loft on the second floor. Hermione collapsed on the large futon and Draco lifted her legs and sat down.

"What are we going to do this summer," asked Draco. "We can't exactly 'walk' to the old Bijou Theater," he searched for the remote.

"Well I could drive," said Hermione. Looking up and handing him the remote. "I passed my driving test last summer before you came, so I can get us pretty much anywhere on at least one tank of gas."

Hermione pulled her feet from Draco and sat up. She looked up at him, and thought he looked a bit sad.

"What's wrong, ferret," she asked. He looked up and made a face.

"Nothing," he replied. Hermione frowned, she wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Come on, Drakey-Poo," she said entangling herself with him, "what's wrong?"

He laughed and pried her off of him. "Nothing's wrong," he said smiling. "It's just," he began. Hermione's ears perked up. "It's just that," he said again, "it's just that my stomach really hurts." It was Hermione's turn to laugh.

"Aww," she said mockingly, "all this drama over some indigestion?" She poked at his stomach. He fought back and pulled her into his hold.

"What was that you called me," he asked as he she tried to struggle free from his hold.

"DRAKEY-POO," she screamed and giggled as he began to tickle her mercilessly. He let up and she gasped for her breath. "I'm sorry, do you prefer BABY DRAGON better," she said standing up and pulling away from him.

"You are not allowed to call me that," he roared and he took her into his arms once more.

Their laughter could be heard all the way downstairs, where the adult conversed quietly. They listened intently as every stumble and thump could be heard through the walls, each secretly wondering what they secretly hoped.

"Sounds like they're really having fun up there," said Emily, sipping her coffee.

"Oh to be young again," said Narcissa. The Granger's turned their heads towards her and shook their heads in disbelief.

"Cissa, you still ARE young," said Emily. "You may be the same age as I am, but you definitely do NOT look it."

"You can thank magic for that," said Narcissa, "I feel as old as you look." She smiled. She loved to tease her friend, and often took her chance when the opportunity showed itself.

"Are you implying Cissa," said Emily, "that I am old?" Everyone at the table knew that there was no right answer to that question, so they all opted to stay silent.

"What do you think they're doing up there," said Paul, as another thump came from the loft above.

"What do you think teenagers do nowadays," said Emily abandoning her rage.

"You don't think that they're-," said Narcissa, wondering if she should finish her sentence, but was cut off by Paul, who finished it for her.

"-More than just friends," he said, "I doubt it. Although that may not be the case in a couple of months. Hermione has that weird effect on her 'guy' friends."

"What effect," asked Emily.

"Why, the way she unconsciously makes them fall for her," said Paul, "I know that the boys don't know that she's doing it, and I doubt that Hermione knows that she does that to them either. But it's eventual."

"You know," said Narcissa, "if they do happen to start some sort of 'relationship', AND if they got married, we would be related Emm?"

"You know," said Emily, "I never thought of it that way." She put her head upon her hand thoughtfully.

"I guess Draco wouldn't make such a bad son-in-law," said Paul.

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves," said Narcissa, "we don't even know if they're interested in each other. I mean they've only had such a short time to really get to know each other. Let's not jinx ourselves, shall we?"

"I agree," said Emily, and that ended their conversation about their children.

AN: EEP!! YOU GUYS ROCK! I WASN'T REALLY GOING TO UPDATE TODAY, BUT I'M JUST SOOO HAPPY THAT MY BOLT BADGES STARTED SCROLLING THAT I JUST HAD TO DO SOMETHING TO MAKE OTHERS AS HAPPY AS I AM! I WAS REALLY GOING TO WAIT TILL I GOT 160 REVIEWS! BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER RIGHT NOW. READ AND REVIEW OKEY DOKEY ARTICHOKEY??

THANK YOU: DanceChic0869, Artemis MoonClaw, pInk pUnk rOckEr 12, sweet-77-thang, lady-sanctuary, Ms. Bitch (Juliet Rose Granger, KittyCat2000, InsanitySquirrel321, xangelluvx, sakura angel90, Ehlonna, Red and Gold, Naoko Ten'ou, Anni, Mia, GingitsuneGirl, sweet, Van Ranger, Mary, No More Heart Breaks, ally-blue, AND malfoy granger. THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST ANONYMOUS REVIEWS I'VE EVER GOTTEN!

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


	10. THE TRUTH ABOUT MICHAEL

**Unexpected Series of Events**

**AN:** gasp An update at last!! I realize it's been a while, so here goes. . . I'M SOO SOOOORRY!! When I said it would be a while, I didn't really think it would be this long! I think you'll like this chapter though, the PG-13-ness finally kicks in. grins Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

**THE TRUTH ABOUT MICHAEL**

"Draco," yelled an exasperated Hermione, "you seriously messed Dobby up!" Hermione and Draco were having another argument on the ethical treatment of house elves.

"Hermione," said Draco, "for the last time, they like it. It's in their system permanently, it's been there since they became domesticated-"

"No," interjected Hermione, "wizards put it in their-"

"You can't prove that-"

"The house elves are the proof-"

"They house elves are happy-"

"They don't know any better-"

Draco threw his arms up and signaled his defeat. He only got into this conversation because he felt that Hermione's view of house elves were too one sided. "I give up," he said walking towards Hermione, "let's just agree to disagree, please?"

An extremely miffed Hermione plopped own on the couch and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said rolling her eyes. They both started calming down from their heated discussion and fifteen minutes later the door bell rang.

Draco opened the front door to be greeted by the oh-so-wonderful- Michael. "Hello Michael," said Draco, "you here for Hermione?" He let the door swing open for Michael to walk through.

"Michael," came Hermione's voice from the loft.

Draco cleared his throat and got Michael's attention. "I think she knows you're here," he joked. Michael gave a small laugh and started to climb the stairs to meet with Hermione. Draco followed after him.

Michael had been coming over more often over the past three weeks, than he ever had during the summer before sixth year. Draco was starting to suspect that Michael actually planned on making a move on Hermione, he suspected it would be very soon.

Hermione excused herself to take a call from her "aunt" (a.k.a. Harry), and left Draco and Michael upstairs by themselves. They started a game of chess and their friendly conversation took a very serious shift.

"Draco," said Michael as he moved his bishop to block Draco's knight, "I think I'm falling for Hermione."

Draco snorted.

"I think you're mistaken Michael," said Draco, "you've been falling for her. I think for the past couple of years."

Michael gave a small nervous laugh.

"God's," he said, "am I that transparent? If I had known I was that obvious I probably wouldn't have visited so much." He took out Draco's rook.

Draco laughed, "I think Hermione's the only one oblivious to it mate. Oh, ha, I meant Check Mate."

"Draco," said Michael in a pleading voice, "let's keep this out secret okay? I want to make my move soon, and I don't want to ruin our friendship either."

"Your secret's safe with me," said Draco, and he set up the board for another game. Three games later, Hermione finally came to join the two boys and talked quietly with them.

"My aunt's really worried," said Hermione, "she says she's been having recurring dreams. I really wish she wouldn't describe them to me so graphically though, it's a little unnerving."

"Sounds like your aunt needs to start taking sleeping pills," joked Michael.

"Dinner will be ready in fifteen," came Mrs. Granger's voice, "Michael, will you be joining us?" The three teens looked over to see Hermione's mom with her hands on her hips, and an apron around her waist, looking very "menacingly" motherly.

Michael checked his watch and declined.

"I've better be going," he said, and to the shock of all three teens, Michael leaned over and gave Hermione a small peck on the cheek. He quickly left, leaving two very shocked teenagers behind him.

The next day, Hermione and Draco, were driving into London on an errand fro Mrs. Granger. Hermione parked her car in front of her parents house and motioned for Draco to get out.

"What are we doing her again," asked Draco for the thirtieth time.

"I told you before," said an annoyed Hermione, "we're doing some house cleaning, sort of. Mum wants us to pick up the post that might have been sent here, get her fancy dishes, and clean up after ourselves while we're at it."

"Why does she always think we make a mess everywhere we go," asked Draco. "It's not like we bring chaos and mayhem with us on purpose."

"Yes, but it's always there isn't it," Hermione shot back, "mum's just planning ahead for the inevitable.

Draco shrugged and followed Hermione into the cozy home. There were white sheets draped over the remaining furniture, dust had collected and could be seen floating in the early summer light. Hermione threw open the curtains and le the light shine into the covered rooms.

Draco wandered into the guest room where he stayed in last summer it looked the same as when he first stayed there.

Empty.

He started to get reminiscent of his days here. He remembered how relaxed he always was knowing that nothing life threatening could be happening to him that day. He always knew that the house would either be empty and quiet, or all of the Grangers would b home and there would be noise of their movements s reverberating through the home. Right now, it was just him and Hermione, moving around in a house that hasn't been lived in for almost nine months.

"Draco, could you help me with these boxes," came Hermione's voice from the hall, " can't tell which one's mum's china set, so could you come and help me look?"

Draco snapped out of his nostalgic daze and proceeded to help Hermione find the elusive dinnerware.

An hour later they were lounging about in the sitting room having lunch. They had a rather spirited argument about Galinda Canaryman, the famous witch writer, and just as Mrs. Granger had predicted, they made a mess.

"I think we better clean this up before we leave," suggested Draco as he pulled a piece of deli meat from his immaculate hair.

"No shit Sherlock," mumbled Hermione, "mum'll kill us if we leave the place like this." A mischievous smile crept upon Hermione's face, "Draco," started, "you can just- 'swish' this all away."

Draco slowly realized what Hermione was implying with the word 'swish,' he pulled out his wand and one grand arm movement and a spell later the sitting room was as it was before they fought, perhaps even cleaner.

They were just about ready to leave when the doorbell rang.

"I saw your car parked outside," Michael said, "thought I'd come and say 'Hi.' You guys need any help wit anything?" He eyed the box of china that sat by the door.

"No," said Hermione from underneath the coffee table. Michael assumed she was looking for a hairpin, little did he know that she was actually looking for her wand. 'What's this,' thought Hermione as she pulled her wand out from underneath the couch. It had a small piece of paper that seemed to have coiled around it, it was a fortune cookie fortune. She unwrapped the paper and read it to herself.  
'It's crying time again, your best friend will be there.'

This confused Hermione greatly since she had no reason at all to cry. "Bloody fortune," mumbled Hermione as she pocketed her wand and joined Draco and Michael in their conversation.

"Hey, I gotta go back," said Michael, "but before you guys leave, Hermione, make sure to stop by the house first. I wanna show you something."

Hermione didn't know why she felt an odd chill when he said that, but she agreed to come by anyway. Michael left, and Draco and Hermione were alone again.

Hermione and Draco swept through the house one last time, and loaded the things they were sent to get into Hermione's car. The strange feeling still had not left Hermione's stomach as she and Draco crossed the street to Michael's house.

They were greeted by Allen, Michael's little brother, and they were soon joined by Michael himself.

Draco stayed downstairs with Allen, as Michael led Hermione upstairs. With each step, Hermione's stomach turned, but she still kept walking, making conversation with her friend. They reached his room, and Michael pushed the door open and let Hermione through first, the gentleman. Hermione walked inside, there was nothing particularly special about his room, so she couldn't exactly place what he wanted to show her.

"So," said Hermione, "what is it what you wanted me to see?" She turned around to face him.

"Huh," said Michael, the churning in her stomach became more bothersome. "Oh, that. I just wanted to talk to you with out Draco hovering above us." He took a big breath, "Hermione, there's something I want to tell you."

Hermione looked out the window, she could see her house out his window. "What is it," she said.

"Well," said Michael, "I think I'm in love with you, Hermione."

"Oh," breathed Hermione as if all the wind had been forced from her lungs. She tried to take in a deep breath, but it didn't work, so instead, she looked out the window again, hoping he would change the subject. He didn't, instead he came to where she stood and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Hermione what would you do if I kissed you right now," Michael whispered into her ear as he pulled her to his body. Hermione started to panic, his arms were strong and he started to kiss her neck. She tried to wriggle from his grasp, but he only held her tighter.

"You can't keep pretending that there's nothing between us Hermione," said Michael as he Turned Hermione around to face him.

"You're like an older brother to me," whispered Hermione. "That's all- ,"she was cut off as his lips came down on her mouth forcefully.

"I wanna change that," his whisper deadly. He gathered her up in his arms and brought her to the bed. He then started to kiss and grope to his liking. Hermione tried her best to push him off of her, but it was no use. She tried feeling around the bed to see if there was something heavy she cold user to knock him out, but all that she felt were pillows, bed sheets, Michael and-

Hermione grasped the small round object. It was the rune disk Draco had given her. It must have fallen out of her pocket as Michael started to impose himself upon her. Praying to everything and anything, she quickly made the rune for "HELP" and hoped that Draco had his disk on him as well.

Whoa, what will happen next. . .

THANK YOU TO: Red and Gold, DarkSilverWolf, foreveryours89, Emerald Flare, rebecca89, rupy, Sonia, Therese Felton, sarah, Darkstar360, Inuyasha Gurl, canadian-chic1, Teegee, Hallie Walker, Relena Potter, Xtreme Nuisance, Artemis MoonClaw, marymaria, starangel24, and uh. . . well I've lost track on who reviewed for what chapter so review this one and you'll surely be mentioned in the next chapter!!

**PUSH THE REVIEW BUTTON!!**


	11. SAVING HERMIONE

**Unexpected Series of Events  
**  
**AN:** THIS CHAPTER SUCKS! That is all.

**SAVING HERMIONE**

**DISCLAIMER**: NO, I AM NOT J.K. ROWLING!

Draco watched as Hermione followed Michael up the stairs. Allen quickly distracted him by starting up a conversation on football. Draco slowly grew interested and continued the verbal sparing with Allen. Minutes later, Draco started to become disinterested in their conversation. His mind wandered back to Hermione, who was still upstairs with Michael.

He put his hand into his pockets and was surprised to find the small rune disk. He fingered it and started to wonder why it felt strangely heavy. He pulled it out and started to toy with it. Allen, who sat across from him snatched it out from Draco's hands.

"Hey," Allen exclaimed, and he examined the disk, "what's this?" He threw it up in the air, and flipped it like a coin. Draco tried to reach for it, but Allen was to quick for him. "Where'd you get it? Looks cool, is like, authentic?"

"Yeah, it's been in my family for a long time," said Draco, "be careful with it."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Allen. "That's so cool!"

"What," asked Draco surprisedly.

"The shapes," said Allen, "they just changed. That's so cool."

Draco tried to snatch the disk back, but Allen held it away from him. "What did you do," asked Draco, trying to keep his temper.

"I-I-I can fix it," stuttered Allen, and he popped up from the couch like a Jack-in-the-box, and stayed well out of Draco's reach. "Don't worry Draco," said Allen looking worried, "I swear I can fix it."

Draco started to become panicked and once again tried to take the disk back. "Allen," said Draco firmly, "give it back. I don't care if you broke it or not, just GIVE IT BACK TO ME NOW." Draco stepped closer to Allen and held his hand out.

Allen looked at Draco and gulped, he reluctantly gave the disk back to Draco.

Draco took one look and quickly realized that it wasn't Allen that changed the runes on the disk, but Hermione. Fear filled Draco as he read the single solitary rune that boldly read, "HELP."

His heart started to beat faster and harder. He reddened with anger and started to shake.

"Draco," asked an uncertain Allen, "are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Michael," whispered Draco in the most deadly voice

"What about him," asked Allen growing even more confused at Draco's sudden explosion of emotion.

"I'm gonna kill him," whispered Draco as he turned away from Allen and hurried up the stairs.

Draco kicked open the door to find Michael on top of a struggling Hermione. He rushed over to the bed and threw Michael off of his friend. He looked at Hermione and his expression softened.

She was safe.

She was wearing a mixture of fear and relief on her face, and could only stare as Draco was approached by Michael.

Michael opened his mouth to explain himself but Draco here any of it. He turned wildly at Michael and threw him a mighty punch in the jaw.

"Draco," whispered Hermione, "let's go."

She placed her hand on Draco's shoulder and with her eyes convicned Draco not to beat Michael into the rug.

"Come on," said Draco and they made their way down the stairs. Hermione avoided all eye contact and quickly grabbed her things as they exited Michael's home, all the while being bombarded by questions from Allen. They walked back across the street and they slipped into the house.

Hermione locked the door behind Draco and crumpled to the floor, and started crying. Draco looked down at his friend and was overcome with sadness. He knelt down and took her into his arms.

Hermione felt a pair of strong arms envelope her and she felt all the emotions welling up inside her release. She openly sobbed into Draco's arms and could only think of what almost happened.

"Shh," said a comforting voice. He rocked her back and forth on the floor and whispered soothing words to. All Hermione could do was cry into his arms till she was made sick of it. Finally, after all her sobbing was done, she gathered herself up and looked up at Draco.

He had a look of deep worry on his face. His eyes expressed emotion she had never seen there before. He truly did care about her.

"Draco," started Hermione carefully, "thank you." The barely audible whisper of thanks took Draco by surprise. He looked down at her and gave her a reassuring smile. He gave a long sigh and hugged her tighter.

"It's okay now," he whispered into her hair.

Hermione pulled away from Draco so suddenly that Draco was taken by surprise, but it was Hermione who was even more surprised when her sudden jolt caused him to say, "Ow."

"What's wrong," Hermione asked. She wriggled out of his hold and took his hand. You're hurt."

"It's nothing," replied Draco taking back his hand reluctantly. "I'll just heal it when we get back."

Hermione laughed. "With what," she asked, "magic??"

Draco felt quiet confused.

Hermione took his hand once again and said, "it's your wand hand silly. How do you propose to heal yourself now??"

Draco then gave a small chuckle, and let Hermione examine his hand. It had become quiet swollen, and Hermione made a great show by "tsk, tsk"- ing a lot.

"We've got a kit upstairs," she said, "I think it's still got some bandages in it. I'll go get it." Hermione got up and started up the stair, but Draco's voice called to her half way up the stairs.

"You alright Hermione," he bellowed from the sitting room. There was a long pause before Hermione gave him her reply.

"I'm fine Draco," she said back to him. "I'm fine now," said in a lowered tone as she continued back up the stairs.

When they got home finally, it was well past afternoon tea, and they were greeted by a very angry Emily Granger.

"Where have you two been," she bellowed. "You," she motioned to Hermione, "weren't answering your mobile, and–"

"It's all my fault," said Draco holding up his hands to quiet down Mrs. Granger's anger, but her face softened when she saw Draco's bandaged hand.

"Oh Draco," she said motherly "what happened?" She took his hand and began to examine it as if to find the cause of the swelling.

"Um," said Draco, "we were looking for the china and when I opened one of the hall closet doors, boxes and boxes fell on me." He motioned wildly to support his lie, "I was out for hours, you see. When I finally came to, Hermione had managed to get me downstairs somehow. Now I've got a knot on the back of my head the size of a walnut and a crushed hand to go with it. It's a good thing hermione's a quick thinker, she saved me even after she warned me about the closet." Draco took in a deep breath and added one last bit: "but, we did get what you asked for and we did clean up after ourselves." He gave a small smile and cooled Mrs. Granger's temper.

Hermione was speechless, all she could do was nod in agreement. Mrs. Granger quickly forgot of the tirade she was about to launch herself into, and started to fuss over Draco and his bandaged hand. She led the two inside, and praised Hermione for her quick thinking and mothered Draco to his heart's content.

Later that night, Hermione sat with Draco in the loft talking quietly about their day's events.

"You don't know how thankful I am that you're my friend," said Hermione.

"I'm pretty sure your other two best friends would have done the same," said Draco putting his arm around Hermione.

"No," said Hermione, "Draco, they would ave exploded. They would've killed him, they can become quiet unreasonable sometimes. They're very capable wizards you know? We all are."

Draco gave a small chuckle. "They just care too much," he said, "it's not a bad thing. I wanted to kill him too, but I didn't because you asked me not to." He looked down at her and smiled.

Hermione's eyes had glazed over and she had started playing with a loose strand of hair. She looked deep in thought, completely absorbed in a thought only known to her. Draco watched her with great interest, then a mischievous smile crept across his face. With his free, un-bandaged hand he grabbed a small pillow and brought it down roughly on her pensive face.

"Draco," shrieked Hermione, "what was that for?"

He laughed boyishly and replied" "you were starting to scare me. Your eyes grew all big like saucers, and you started to space out as if you were in Binns' class."

"You know Draco, if you weren't handicapped right now, I'd hurt you," said Hermione standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

Draco chuckled softly and threw the pillow at her face. He grinned from ear to ear at the look on Hermione's face. If looks could kill, Hermione's would have put the Dark Lord into his grave. "Oh, I'm petrified," said Draco.

They laughed.

"Hermione, Draco," said Mrs. Granger the next morning at breakfast. "We're going to need for you two to start packing your bags."

"Why," asked Hermione apprehensively.

Mrs. Granger clasped her hands together and looked _POSITIVELY- DELIGHTED_. "We're going to HAWAII!!," she exclaimed.

Instead of being happy Hermione became livid. "WHAT?!" she screamed Hermione standing up suddenly. "For what, why," she managed to get out between stammering and screaming, "is it for that bloody-dentist-retreat-get-together-party-thing?! because if it is, I REFUSE to go!!" She stamped her foot and made it seem final. Suddenly, Hermione was not the composed, well behaved young woman everyone at Hogwarts knew her to be, now she was a petulant child about to throw a tantrum.

"Don't raise your voice at me, young lady," said Mrs. Granger coming into her full height. "You will go and that's final. No arguments."

"FINE!" said Hermione and stalked out of the room.

"Sorry about that scene Draco," said Emily finally noticing the blond boy in the room with her. "Do me a favor and try to calm her down a bit," she pleaded, "you're so good at it. I don't think she'll be talking to me for the rest of the day." Sighing, she left for work.

Draco nodded and left the room to find Hermione. After climbing the stairs, he could hear loud rock music emanating from Hermione's room. Sighing, he went on to tame the raging teenager inside the room.

He tried the door.

It wouldn't open.

"Go away," said Hermione.

"It's me," said Draco trying the door once more. A second later the door snapped open and he was inside.

"What's wrong with Hawaii?" asked Draco.

Hermione sighed. "It's not Hawaii that I'm frustrated about, it's the thing we have to go to in Hawaii."

"And that would be," asked Draco.

"That would be the Dentist Conference my parents go to every summer. And this year it just happens to be held on one of the most beautiful places on Earth." She collapsed on the bed, "the other dentists come from all over Europe, and the states just to show off their family and their surgically enhanced spouses. It's horrible Draco. I actually have to tolerate these people for a whole week!"

"Is it really that bad," said Draco, "I mean this year you wont be all alone. You've got me to go . . . read books and pamphlets with you!"

At last, Hermione smiled. "I forgot about that," she said, "and I guess we an do something other than reading pamphlets too. Like oh. . . we can go on one of those guided tours–"

"Or an, un-guided one," suggested Draco with his mischievous grin on his face.

"Or that," said Hermione considering the idea in the back of her head. "And if I'm with you, I can avoid all those monsters that consider themselves my 'FRIENDS."

She smiled.

THE END. . . for now.

Thanks to. . . DanceChic0869, lilkrnbaby19, RedandGold, ibAbiixGuRrLx101i, AznAngel, lady-sanctuary, dracosgurlchrissy, nastyslacks(now I feel guilty for making you wait), darkstar360 (if you don't review, I'll hurt BEAKER), Meg, paprika90(HEY!? WHAT THE!?), SlytherinRomantic, Dracoluver2009, Benji Girl, NitenGale, mimai, Strawbarry Gurl (this took a loong time to write), InsanitySquirrel321, Siriusly Searching for Black, Alicia(no, x.O at least I'm not), Tropic, Callie, alysia, ladyla (well thank your for the compliment, I'm glad you like!), American Tiger(ah! Don't do that! Then you'll be bald!), blackbutterfly, sophiethedevil, iLoVeDrAcO15, Artemis MoonClaw, prongsthemaurauder, etlan red(that sounds dangerous), Serena, bubbles, and childofoceans (I will stop where ever the heck I want!)

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


	12. HAWAII FUN AND FLOSS

**UNEXPECTED SERIES OF EVENTS **

AN: Please don't kill me.

**HAWAIIAN FUN AND FLOSS**

Draco looked out the plane's window as the massive craft descended down onto the small landing strip of Honolulu. It had been an exhausting twenty hours for both Draco and the flight attendants he managed to bother with his never ending barrage of questions. He was excited to be on a plane for the first time in his life, so naturally he was curious and overflowing with questions. Unfortunately, Hermione had gone to sleep about hour seven into the flight and left Draco to talk to the flight attendants by himself.

Now thirteen hours later, they were more than happy to get rid of their first class annoyance. Draco shook Hermione awake and bugged her to look out the window. She grumpily wriggled out of the complimentary blanket and leaned over Draco. She gave a groggy smile and looked over at Draco.

"It's beautiful isn't it," asked Draco.

"Mmhmm," replied Hermione. "Lovely, I can't wait till we land," she added sarcastically. Hermione was still a bit cranky from being so rudely awakened, and mixed with her reluctance to come on the trip, she wasn't exactly the most chipper of all passengers.

"Draco did you sleep at all," asked Hermione looking over at her blond best friend.

"Nope, I haven't," he replied. "Rather interesting movie that 'Ring' is. With all that. . . dying." His eyes were wide and Hermione could tell he was rattled by the movie. "What a strange movie to show after 'She's All That,'" he mumbled. Hermione gave a small laugh as she retrieved their carry ons from the over head compartment.

"Were you scared baby dwaggy-boo?" she said mockingly.

"No I was not," he said with a huff. "And don't call me that," he added giving her a small shove.

"Ha, ha," said Hermione thrusting Draco's bag at him. "Let's go already. You big baby." She shouldered her duffle bag and started to make her way through the aisle. Many of the passengers were still sleeping and being gently shaken awake the already disgruntled flight attendants. Draco followed after Hermione and made his way out of the airplane. Upon exiting the plane he was greeted by a pretty Hawaiian girl and had a lei placed around his neck.

"Ah yes," he said to the girl sheepishly. "Aloha to you too," he added with a big grin. The girl giggled, took one last look at him, and went off to greet the other passengers coming off the plane. He turned to Hermione and said, "I love Hawaii."

"That quickly?" she said, "you've only seen the airportཀ You really have nothing better in your head other than food, quidditch and girls." She rolled her eyes at him and went off to join her parents. Draco happily trailed after her, taking in the wonderful smell of the lei around his neck.

"I don't see anything wrong with that," he mumbled.

"That's because you're quite blind most times," she said without turning around.

"Why must everything be so bleeding sunny?" asked Draco as he stepped

out of the taxi.

"Because we're on a _bleeding _tropical island Draco, it's supposed to be sunny," replied Hermione with a small snort. "Honestly, you could use a bit of sun Draco, you're as pale as a ghost sometimes. Try to catch a bit of a tan while you're here Draco."

"I'm not that pale," said Draco with a frown looking at his reflection in the car window, "I'm just fair skinned is all. I burn easy Hermione." "Fair Skinned" happened to be the understatement of the year. Draco was unbelievably pale, and needed an appointment (or seven) with sunlight as soon as possible. At the end of sixth year, he looked like a ghost, despite all of the quidditch training he had been going through. Draco simply lacked pigment in his skin, and the result from that was his specter-like appearance.

"Alright you two," broke in Mrs. Granger, "let's go check in, THEN you can go at each others throats again."

"Alright mum," said Hermione and waited patiently with Draco while her parents retrieved their room keys from the front desk. "I can't wait to get this bloody thing over with already."

"Why do you hate coming to these retreat things so much?" asked Draco.

"Why? It's a bleedin' waste of timeཀ Mother knows very well I don't like coming to these retreats, and I especially don't like the people of these retreats. I managed to avoid it these past couple of years by hanging out at the burrow with Harry and Ron, but unfortunately I was unable to do the same this year."

"It wont be so bad Hermione," said Draco. "You've got me now. Plus, I'm much more annoying than those other monsters you so fondly speak of."

Hermione gave a weak smile and followed after her parents.

"Alright kids," said Mr. Granger. "We're on the thirteenth floor, rooms 1311 and 1312." He gestured towards Hermione and Draco, "You two will be sharing a room, no funny business. Is that understood?"

Hermione and Draco flushed crimson and quickly mumbled "yes."

Hermione and Draco stepped into the hotel room to find that it had the perfect view of the beach, and ocean below. Draco immediately plopped down onto one of the beds and let out a loud audible sight. "You're dad's gone nutty," he muttered as he sat up on the bed. "What on earth do they think we do when we're alone together?"

"Try not to let my dad get to you Draco," said Hermione trying to steer away from the subject, "you know how over protective he is of me." she started to unpack her belongings into the drawers and hang her clothes on the hangers. "He just cares a little bit to much is all. He knows that I wouldn't do anything with you, that I wouldn't do with Harry or Ron."

"But you haven't exactly brought Harry nor Ron home to meet the parents," shot Draco with a smirk.

"It's not like I don't want to," said Hermione hotly, "it's just that the circumstances really wont allow it." She turned back to the drawers and then added: "don't think you're so special either, you only came to my doorstep by pure chance." She turned to the blonde boy laying on the bed, "who would've thought that your mother and my mother would've turned out to be childhood friends? The probability's astronomicalཀ" She threw her hip into the drawer to shut it, and promptly fell onto the other bed.

"You're thinking too much again," said Draco as he turned over on his stomach and eyed Hermione curiously. I'm making it my personal goal to get you to relax over the summer. Bonus points to myself if I can get you to do it while we're here in Hawaii."

"Annoying twot," muttered Hermione. "You have no idea what you're in for," she added under her voice.

"What was that," asked Draco.

"Oh nothing..just mumbling to myself," covered Hermione. All she wanted was to get this retreat over as quickly as possible. She would rather serve four months of detention with Snape, Filch, and Umbridge combined than be where she was right now. She dreaded having to put on her plastic smile and have to pretend that she actually tolerated the people around her. Her spirit lightened at the thought that Draco would be with her to suffer as well. She smiled at the thought of it.

"What're you smiling at?" asked Draco, "you look all loopy. Are you alright?" He waved his hand in front of her face and Hermione snapped out of her reverie. She shook her head and saw that Draco was right in her face examining her for some rare disease.

"I'm fine Draco," said Hermione pushing the blond away. " I was just thinking."

"Thinking you say," said Draco sitting on the floor of their hotel rubbing his chin insightfully, he did a horrible impression of Professor Flitwick and Hermione couldn't help but laugh. She rolled over, grabbed a pillow, and chucked it in his direction to stop his comical face.

"I was just thinking of the oodles and oodles of fun we're going to have on this retreat," she threw him one of Draco's very own patented smirks, got up and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Little did she know that Draco still had the goofy look plastered on his face.

Draco was suddenly jerked awake by Hermione. "Mum dropped off the itinerary. We've got a Seven O'clock breakfast. Hurry up and get dressed."

"What mmime zz it?" grumbled Draco rolling over to shake Hermione off.

"It's six thirty," she replied giving him an extra shove, "get up! GET UP!" She pulled on the blanket wrapped around Draco and threw her weight into one hard pull. Draco came rolling out of bed as Hermione fell back from the force exerted from her pull.

"Oy, what was that for," whined Draco standing up and looking very disheveled.

"Get ready," replied Hermione. "We've got less than half an hour till breakfast, and mother wants to introduce us to all of her dentist friends and what-not. I want to get this over with so we can spend the rest of the retreat hiding from them. So hurry up."

They made it down to the large ball room littered with dozens of circular tables. All filled with chattering people of every shade of tan and pink, and brown. All having worn braces at one time or another. Draco looked around the room while following after Hermione and noted all of the people he saw around him. They were colorful and different, and unlike his female friend, excited to be in such an exotic location. "Here we are," he heard Hermione mumble next to him, and they took their seats with Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were both wearing matching Hawaiian shirts and grins.

"How was your room?" asked Mrs. Granger after taking a sip of her coffee. "The view is absolutely amazing in our room, how 'bout yours?"

"The view's just fine," said Hermione irately, and she piled a pancake on her plate. She had been in this mood since they left their room thirteen floors above. She didn't speak to Draco at all during the ride down in the elevator, nor did she acknowledged any of his "Hermione wait up!"s She proceeded to hack her pancakes into small pieces and smother them with butter, jam and salt.

"Err Hermione," said Draco gently taking the salt shaker away from her, "are you sure about what you just did?"

"Huh?" replied Hermione looking at him in a sort of a daze. She looked at her plate and realized what he was talking about. She let out a loud groan and pushed her plate away. "I thought it was eggs," she said weakly.

"Then why did you put jam?" asked Draco.

"Err...I thought that was toast.." she replied under her voice.

"HERMIONE!" came a loud Texan voice. Hermione sat bolt upright with a look of fear and dread plastered on her face. "Oh, no," she mouthed, and her eyes darted wildly around in their sockets. Draco turned around looking for the source of the voice, and sure enough he found it. It belonged to a tall, dirty blond girl with a smile that could rival Gilderoy Lockharts. Draco could only grin stupidly. Hearing Hermione take a big breath, she too turned around to meet the girls eyes.

"Hi!" said Hermione. She stood up and wrapped her arms around the girl, and did pretend kisses with her. "Wow, I haven't seen you in such a long time!" exclaimed Hermione, her smile never reaching her eyes. They bantered about for two seconds until the girl noticed Draco.

"Well, well," she said, "who's this Hermione?" She didn't turn to hear Hermione's response, she stuck out her hand towards Draco and said: "Kimberly Wilson." Draco took her hand and being the gentleman and flirt that he was, kissed the hand and shot her an award winning Malfoy smile.

"Draco Malfoy. It's a pleasure meeting you. . . Kimberly," he said never breaking eye contact. He grinned widely inside knowing that he had caused the girl to blush so profusely.

"Aren't you a charmer," said Kimberly. She turned back to Hermione and said: "I didn't think you would actually come this year. You've missed out on so much. Last year this shindig was held in my home state, and I was so eager to show you around and all that."

"Yes well.. I had other things to do that summer," said Hermione.

"But you're here now!" exclaimed Kimberly, "and we're gonna spend every moment of this retreat treat together!" And to Hermione's horror, she pulled up the seat between her and Draco and sat down. She began animatedly chatting it up with Hermione's parents, and without noticing, she picked up a fork and dug into the plate that Hermione had pushed away. Slowly her cheery disposition turned to one of disgust. "What is this?" she asked unsurely. "Is this some sort of European delicacy or something?" swallowing hard, she looked up at Hermione who was trying hard to keep herself from laughing.

"Oh no.." said Hermione stifling a giggle, "it's my plate that I accidently ruined. I was lost in thought, I'm sorry.. I must have spaced out for a moment and dumped all that salt there." She then did a complete turn around, "What kind of service is this? They didn't even see that I was clearly done with this plate!" she continued on in mock anger, "the service here is atrocious!"

"I agree," said Draco dumbly, and Hermione flashed him a small smile. Suddenly, the glint he had not seen in Hermione's eyes since the day before was back, and he knew that the gears within Hermione's head were turning. She winked at him quickly, and kept up her facade with her next victim. 'What a shame,' thought Draco, 'her friend's kinda cute.' Instead of letting his disapproval for her act show, he played along with his friend, and planned on wringing her for information later back in their hotel room. He turned his attention back at his food and ate contentedly.

By the time he and Hermione got out of breakfast it was 10 o'clock. He and Hermione were about to eagerly board the elevator when a familiar Texan voice chased after them. "Guuys!" said Kimberly throwing herself in the way of the opening doors. "Which convention meeting are you guys going to? I was hoping we could all go to the same one!" Draco was drawing a blank, he had no idea what the girl in front of him was talking about. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione cut him off.

"We're going to the floss one today at noon," said Hermione curtly, her face expressionless.

"Oh," said Kimberly disappointedly, "how 'bout ya'll go to the root canal one? That's the one I'm going to, my dad's the lead speaker. It's tomorrow, and I was hoping that you . . ." Draco tuned out, he knew nothing about these conference meetings and wouldn't give two knuts about what anyone had to say about proper flossing. He looked at Hermione and she fielded Kimberly's persistent persuasion like a pro. He just nodded and stepped into the elevator holding down the "open" button for Hermione.

"Sorry Kimberly we just can't," said Hermione stepping into the elevator, "we'll talk later," she managed to get out while the elevator doors closed. The last thing he heard from the Texan was "I don't know what room you guys are in, and.." He chuckled and leaned against the wall. Hermione let out a loud sigh and looked at him.

"Thanks for the help down there," said Hermione obviously miffed.

Draco shrugged.

Hermione retaliated with a not so playful punch to his arm.

"Ow!" he said in mock pain. "What the bloody hell could I have done? I don't know a thing about what on earth you two were blathering on about. Now if you two were talking about food or quidditch, then I might have had something to say, but you weren't were you? So I just let you handle it. You were doing so well without my help anyways."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Food and quidditch! Is that all you're good for?" Draco nodded. "Then you're bloody useless." The elevator doors opened and she stomped furiously out. Following after her, Draco completely forgot about wringing her for information about her past experiences at the different conferences, and followed her into their room.

Draco was bored to tears. He was sitting in a large ballroom surrounded by dentists and other such teeth workers. He stared blankly at the man with the laser pointer at the front of the room, he was numbingly dull as he went on about the different bacteria that lived in between teeth and gums. Draco lost interest before the eighth bacteria was called, and he was nodding off to sleep every few minutes. Hermione nudged him in the ribs everytime he was almost to dreamland, and he would shake awake and pretend to have only been resting his eyes. The floss talk was only thirty minutes long, but to Draco it felt like an eternity. He leaned in towards Hermione and asked (for the millionth time): "Why are we here again?"

Hermione didn't even bother to look at him this time. "Because mum and dad said we should show up to at least one conference meeting or else they wouldn't give any pocket money, and force us to go on all those boring tours with them and their dentist friends," she whispered. "And quit your whining, it's almost over. I promise, your non-alcoholic piña colada is on me." Then added: "You know I only chose this one because this one because it was the first one on the list."

At that comment Draco became fully awake. "You mean there could've been a more interesting conference lecture and you chose to sit through the one of the more boring ones?" he asked in a not so hushed whisper.

"Shh!" said an annoyed looking fat woman in the seat in front of them.

Draco was about to argue when Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs. "We'll talk later," she said through gritted teeth. The rest of the conference lecture passed like a blur. A long, incredibly boring blur. When it finally did end Draco was staring blankly at the top of the lecturer's head and had a bit of drool coming out of his mouth.

"Wakey wakey," Hermione whispered low into his ear. Draco didn't know what it was about her whisper, but it made him strangely aroused. He smiled stupidly and replied:

"Talk dirty to me more."

"WHAT?" said Hermione standing straight up.

At the exclamation Draco jerked alert and looked at Hermione's shocked face. "Something wrong?" he asked wiping the drool from the corner of his lips. He got up and stretched. He looked around the now empty room and let out a loud yawn.

"Did you just say 'talk dirty to me more?'" Hermione finally blurted out.

Draco stopped cold. He knew that was what he said, but he didn't know he had said it aloud. To save his ass, Draco went to the old Malfoy stand-by. Lie.

"No," he said with a chuckle, "I said 'thirty minutes more' crazy head. Why, are you offering?" The last bit sent a blush to Hermione's cheeks that heat practically came off of them. Draco knew he was in the clear.

"No," she squeaked, and walked away from him. Rather quickly actually. So quick that she bumped into one of the bare-chested waiters. "Sorry," he heard her mutter and continued to hurry toward the exit.

"Wait up!" Draco called. He ran after her and grabbed her arm. "I didn't mean it, you knew I was kidding right?"

"No one can read your face Draco and you know it," said Hermione looking him in the eyes. "I can't tell when you're kidding or not, but you read me like a book."

"I know what'll cheer you up," said Draco draping his arm around her shoulders and steering her toward the hotel bar and grill. Ten minutes later Draco had his non-alcoholic piña colada, and Hermione was happily sipping at a coconut drink served right from the coconut. It even had one of those little umbrella things sticking out from the drink. She was definitely happy since she made slurpy noises as she finished her drink. Their conversation was pleasant enough, steered carefully away from the talk of naughty things by both of the teens. They were almost home free when something unpleasant pierced the air.

"Hey ya'll!" said an all to bouncy, all too happy, and all too BOUNCY Kimberly. Draco eyed her outfit carefully. Her bottoms left almost nothing to the imagination, and the pieces of cloth that covered her well-endowed chest looked as if they couldn't they couldn't handle one more bounce from Kimberly. Actually, he was counting on it. She just kept talking as Draco stared, hypnotized, by her dirty pillows. He stared up to the moment Kimberly wrapped a towel over them. Disappointed, he had to force himself to listen to the conversation that was happening right in front of him.

"We went to the FLOSSING is Important lecture," said Hermione. "This morning, we just got out. So, I don't think we'll be able to join you to hear the Proper Dental Care workshop, Draco nearly started snoring at the lecture. I'm not going to force him to do too much in one day. I'm sorry."

She looked sincere enough. Even though Draco knew that Hermione was battling every bone in her body to reach over and punch poor Kimberly, she was a pretty good actress going about it. Unfortunately, Draco would've done just about anything just to see Kimberly out of her towel . . . Kimberly must have felt his eyes on her and followed his gaze. She looked up at him with a do-you-like-what-you-see? look, and Draco could only stare.

"Ahem," said Hermione breaking into their staring game, "would you like me to go so you can get some privacy?"

It was Kimberly who broke the stare first. "No," she said, "we're fine. I've got to get dressed anyways. I'm all wet...I mean from the beach. I'm gonna go get dressed." She left in a hurry.

Draco frowned and looked after her as she waddled away in her towel and sandals. Hermione snapped her fingers in his face and drew attention back on her. "Are you alright?" she asked in annoyance, she tapped her foot impatiently. "Honestly it's like you became Ron right before my eyes. With all that ogling, I would've thought her clothes might as have just melted away."

"Sorry for being a guy Hermione," muttered Draco.

"Forgiven."

They spent the rest of the day lounging about the pool occasionally moving to another spot to make sure that Draco didn't burn. By the end of the day Hermione had a nice glowing tan while Draco was lucky he wasn't red, pealing, and shining. Draco had managed to blind a poor leathery looking woman with his incredibly white abs when he took off his shirt as a half-hearted attempt to bronze. After that scandal, Draco stayed in the shade of the umbrellas while Hermione basked in the sun. When they got back to their hotel Draco was very disgruntled. He grunted as he kicked off his sandals and proceeded to do damage check on his skin in the bathroom. His feet were red and raw, but he wasn't in pain. His skin wasn't burnt at all. He had done good at keeping to the shade, his skin wasn't scorched but it wasn't so white anymore. It had a faint pink tinge to it, but he knew that it wasn't anything to worry about.

He opened the bathroom door and said: "Hey Hermione, hand me my wand!" A few seconds later it was shoved into his hand by his roommate and Draco went back to inspecting his body.

"You know, I think that I've seen a good healing spell for burns," mused Hermione. "It's in my Advanced Charms book that I brought with me."

"You brought a school book with you on holiday?" asked Draco.

"Please remember that it isn't a holiday for me since I didn't want to come," said Hermione. "If I'm going to have to take a beach book, I might as well learn something from it."

"You never did seem like the type for tawdry penny novels," muttered Draco under his breath.

"No Draco, that's you." Hermione made kissy faces, then grinned her best at his shocked face.

"THOSE BOOKS AREN'T MINE FOR THE LAST BLOODY TIME!" roared Draco pouncing on Hermione.

––––

AN: So I got an email recently asking where the heck I was. Truthfully, I don't know, but I dug up an unfinished chapter of this story, re-read, re-wrote, then re-wrote some more and I give you this. After reading Half Blood Prince, I've decided to completely disregard the new revelations brought up, and stick with the OotP spoilers that I've already touched on. I'll find a place for 6th HP, later on. Forgive me for not updating this story I was side tracked. Thank you to all of my reviewers, and those who have been kind enough to add me to your favorites list. I'll try to update more often.

Review, review, review.


	13. PROMISES

**UNEXPECTED SERIES OF EVENTS **

AN: Sorry for the long gaps between updates. Please take this new chapter as an offering.

**PROMISES **

The following days in Hawaii were filed with mischief and fun for Hermione and Draco, and by the end of the trip, Hermione had finally let herself relax and enjoy herself to the fullest. We join the two protagonists of this story on their last night in Hawaii, at a luau held on one of the hotel's many beachfront properties.

The setting is the beginning of the afternoon, the sun is just about ready to begin it's descent into the horizon, and the torches are being lit to prepare for the ensuing darkness. The smell of smoke from the barbecue fills the air, and the conference attendees begin to filter into the designated area. Hermione and Draco are among those people, and they are bitterly arguing between themselves about their day's adventure into an old temple.

"I can't believe you managed to get yourself poisoned," chided Hermione as she and Draco walked to the luau. They were dressed in typical tourist garb. "I even warned you not to stray from the path."

"It's not my fault Hermione," Draco shot back, "it wasn't marked one way or the other. How was I supposed to know?"

"You shouldn't have eaten the thing at all! You could have died," said Hermione through gritted teeth. At this, Draco takes Hermione's shoulders and steadies her to look her square in the eyes.

"But I know for a fact that I wont," he said with his award winning smirk, "not as long as you're around."

Speechless, Hermione accepted his roundabout way of apology with a heavy sigh.

"Kids!" said a voice. It was Hermione's dad, and he was waving them down to the table they'd been assigned. Already seated at this table were Hermione's parents, and another family. They looked like they had spent every living moment out in the sun; they positively glowed from the exposure. They smiled politely as Hermione and Draco took the remaining seats.

"Name's Bob Phyllis," said the tan man, "this here's Sharon, and my boys Fredrick, and Dyllan, they're fraternal twins." At the mention of their names, both boys rolled their eyes at being bundled together by the label.

They politely shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

A very fit and tan man burst onto the stage yelling and began spinning batons lit at both ends with fire. He would spin and jump and toss his batons, all the while garnering all of the proper 'ohs' and 'ahs' from the audience. Following the show, the food was brought out by women dressed in hula skirts, no doubt a following act to the fire dance later in the night.

The dinner went pleasantly, and the sun sank as it always does into the horizon, giving off different hues of sunset as it grew dimmer, and day turned into night. They were merry, and made the best of their last night in Honolulu. Draco danced with Kimberly, despite having more of an interest in his new and interesting food, and Hermione danced with both of the Phyllis boys. They're laughter and smiles cemented the end to one of the more agreeable Dentist Conventions that Hermione had been forced into attending, and made the return trip all the more bittersweet. This would be the happiest that Draco and Hermione will be for the rest of the summer.

Once they return to Hermione's home she takes off to The Burrow for a week, leaving Draco to occupy his days by himself. On her return, her demeanor is grim and gets Draco alone to tell him the news she'd learned while staying with the Weasleys.

"Draco we need to talk," she said grimly, "it's about your father."

Draco's eyes widened but he stayed silent and nodded for Hermione to continue. "He's escaped Azkaban, we don't know how, but we suspect that he had help." She wrung her hands nervously, "That's not all though. We thing he might come after your mum to find out where you are. I've already spoken to her, and I've advised her to go into hiding."

"How do you know she'll be safe Hermione?" Draco impatiently paced the room, "Do you know where she's gone?"

"I'm not here secret keeper Draco," replied Hermione, "but she asked me to give you this note." She handed him the folded parchment sealed with his mother's favorite ring. "I'm sorry that you had to find out like this, but it's become more imperative that you return to Hogwarts where you can be kept safe."

"We're not safe," said Draco, "You're not safe. My mum needs me, and I'm stuck in this borough checking the skies for suspicious owls and shady characters."

"Look," said Hermione, "we've taken every precaution. We're safe, and she's safe." She put in his hands the letter, and gave them a good long grip. "We'll get through, I promise you. As long as you've got me, you'll always have someone at your back. I wont let anything bad happen, not to you, not to your mum." With those parting words, she left him to read Narcissa's note in private.

_Dearest Draco,_

_If you're reading this, it means that the thing I fear most has happened, your father has escaped Azkaban and he's out for blood. As we are his closest of kin, he'll come after us first. I want you to be aware Draco, he'll stop at nothing to have his way, and he'll use and go through anyone we care about._

_I'm making the sacrifice of my freedom so that you can have yours. Don't try to look for me, I promise that I will be in safe places. He can't get to you as long as you're in Hogwarts, I've been assured of that. I can't be found by him, I know for sure that he'll use me to get to you. Darling, don't fall for his tricks – we know what he truly is, and we must overcome him. _

_Know that I will not try to contact you by owl, any correspondence we'll have will be mediated by Hermione. Trust only her to deliver my messages._

_Take care of the Grangers._

_Love Always,_

_-N-_

An uncontrollable anger coursed through Draco's blood, he shook and clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and they ached. It would only be a couple more weeks until he'd be back in Hogwarts, but now every minute he wasn't there was a minute lived in anxiety. Anxiety that at any moment Lucius Malfoy could blow down the door of this lovely family's home and ruin everything that Draco had built with them.

Taking care to secure the note in a safe place with his belongings, he got up and went to find Hermione. He found her sitting in her room looking out the window, clearly lost in thought. He knew she was thinking about their situation, and he felt a little dread that she might want him gone to protect her own family. When the thought crossed his mind he immediately felt like turning back to his room in order to avoid having the conversation, but she hears him before he has a chance to move. Turning, she looked at him somberly and before he could even open his mouth she'd crossed the room and embraced him.

His lapse into fear and anxiety quickly passed when he realized that Hermione wouldn't leave his side. He allowed himself to be comforted now, as he had comforted her earlier this summer.

"We'll get through this, I promise," she said, breaking the embrace.

"As long as you're around," he replied weakly.

The coming weeks passed, but Draco and Hermione felt tense the whole time, afraid that Lucius might discover their location. Yet, nothing crossed their path that even remotely resembled ill-will towards them. They received their letters from Hogwarts, and were able to fetch their school books without any trouble, they also received news that they had been chosen as Head Boy and Head Girl.

Aside from that one morsel of happy news, they received no word from Narcissa, which worried Draco to no end. Every morning he would ask Hermione of new developments, and the answer would always be the same; an unequivocal 'No.'

The day would finally come that Hermione and Draco would leave their safe borough for Hogwarts, and the weather mirrored their glum mood that September 1st. Storm clouds loomed overhead as Mr. Granger drove the pair to Kings Cross Station.

"I'll let you lot off on the curb," said Mr. Granger, "I've got to get home and help mum out with things at the office. You two'll be fine, yeh?"

"Of course dad," said Hermione. She leaned over and planted a kiss on her father's cheek and exited the car.

"It was lovely staying with you this summer, Mr. Granger," said Draco, as he made his way out of the car.

"Know you're welcome anytime in our home Draco, wherever that may be," said Mr. Granger cheerily. After a quick hug goodbye, and once the trunks had been unloaded for the pair, Mr. Granger waved them off, and left of his office. Once out of sight, Draco and Hermione's backs slumped.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Hermione, "this changes everything you know."

"It's the right thing to do," Draco said certainly. "You're friends need to know about us, our friendship. They need to trust me, like you trust me."

"I know we've pretty much resolved to do this," said Hermione, "I'm just giving you this opportunity to back out. You don't have to do this. I know how Ron and Harry get, and they wont take this well."

"No, we have to do this," said Draco. "You have the box right?"

Hermione nodded and produced a dark purple box with silver trimming. The box had been their project the last three weeks of their summer, and now it was time to reveal its contents to Ron, and Harry. Hermione hoped to sway them to give Draco a chance with the box, and Draco had faith in Hermione's skill in persuasion that she would have her way.

"Good," said Draco, suddenly his senses prickled and every hair on body stood on end as if electrified by an unknown force. "You go on ahead, and I'll catch up."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Just trust me," said Draco sternly. "I promise I'll meet you inside." As Hermione went off to look for a trolley to load her trunk onto, Draco looked around for the source of his unease. Scanning the crowds of people at Kings Cross his eyes met with figure he hoped he would never see again.

He wanted to charge after Hermione, to make sure of her safety, but he couldn't move. Slowly the figure approached Draco where he stood, with two others following in his wake. It dawned on Draco that they had been enchanting him the second he stepped inside Kings Cross, that's why he could sense them, and why he currently couldn't move his arms and legs.

"Gelson, take up my boy's trunk and bring it to the train," said Lucius Malfoy in his usual nonchalant tone. "The Head Boy will be missed for just a few minutes."

Although, his voice was calm and collected, his appearance was not. The time he'd spent at Azkaban clearly took its toll on Lucius, but he didn't let it stop his appearance at the train station.

"Follow," said Lucius as he walked through the barrier of 9 ¾ and Draco followed his father through. "You and I have a lot to catch up on, but that's not important right now." They stood just outside of the group of parents wishing their children farewell, watching as tears were shed and hugs exchanged. Lucius nodded to the second figure, an unnamed man to move into the crowd, and Draco followed his trail to lead near where Hermione was standing.

She was directing first years to go onto the train, while the purple box sat near her feet. The unnamed man stood away from her, but kept close proximity, awaiting an order from Lucius Malfoy.

"You have a choice," said Lucius, "choose wisely. My man over there will hurt Ms. Granger where she stands and not think twice about it. The kind of hurt you don't recover from."

Draco tried to rush to her side but couldn't; he tried to scream but it came out as a growl.

"It's simple really. You have to give her up, all of your fond memories, gone." said Lucius, "And that's that, you save her from the fate I've got in store. Now I'll let you talk, but you so much as scream and I'll kill you both." The promise was icy, and Draco was certain of what Lucius would do if provoked. He nodded, and Lucius allowed him to speak for the first time since being captured.

"Promise you wont hurt her," said Draco. "On your life she get safe passage to Hogwarts."

"You're really in no position to make demands, Draco," replied Lucius, "but I'm feeling generous. So . . . yes. Ms. Granger will be safe if you agree to my proposition."

"And her family." Added Draco.

"Yes," said Lucius growing bored of the conversation, "Them too."

Draco looked at what his father had become, and felt sick to his stomach. He saw an unrepentant man, clearly driven insane by his own ambition and schemes. He also knew that by agreeing to this contract that he would lose his best friend, and for the first time Draco allowed himself to feel an emotion he'd been afraid to share even with himself. He deeply cared for Hermione, he loved her, which made his sacrifice all the more painful.

Lucius smiled, for he knew what was to happen next. Draco consented, and his world became black.

**AN: **Thanks for reading, please review!


	14. THE PRIVATE STUDY

**Unexpected Series of Events**

**AN:** This story is barreling towards an end. It may take a couple of chapters to get there, but it is my current project to finish all of my unfinished multi-chaptered stories. Followed by a much needed clean up on grammar and spelling, not to mention structure. Please enjoy this new installment of my firstborn fan fiction. Don't forget to review!

**The Private Study**

Hermione waited impatiently on the train with the other prefects for Draco. She tapped her foot and pretended to read, despite not being able to take in what was on the page. She was anxious to proceed with their plan, but the longer Draco was away the more and more nervous she became. Professor McGonagall entered the cabin and began assigning duties for the new prefects. Hermione barely noticed that Draco slipped in behind her during the process.

"Where have you been," she asked him. "I've been waiting for almost a half hour."

For the first time in two years Draco looked at Hermione like she'd sprouted horns that started singing showtunes. Before he could give her an answer, Professor McGonagall came up to them and handed them the new passwords.

"I expect you two to set an example for the prefects and students," she said in her usual tone. "If you two so much as exchange sparks I'll have your badges." The latter was said in such a matter-of-fact tone that the two Heads could only nod. "Mr. Malfoy you may go, Ms. Granger, a word?"

Professor McGonagall led her out of the prefects cabin into an empty one, she then drew out from her sleeve a shiny, but old brass key. "This is the key to the private study in the library, it is located right before the Restricted Section. I've been given permission by the Headmaster to give this to you so that you may have a quiet place to study."

"Thank you," said Hermione, "I— "

"I'm afraid I have another bit of news for you," interrupted McGonagall. Hermione closed her mouth and listened attentively as if she were in class. "I'm afraid that your _friend_ has been compromised."

"What—"

"Let me finish," McGonagall said with a wave of her hand. "What has been done to him, we are not quite sure of, but it is powerful magic. I advise you not to pursue your old friendship with this person, it will confuse and agitate them, and we can not be sure what they might do if they become overwhelmed."

"I don't understand Professor, when did this happen," Hermione felt stunned at this new revelation, "He was fine when I saw him last."

"Ms. Granger calm yourself," McGonagall chided. "As you know we were aware of your relationship to this person, but you must not attempt to remind him of his lost memories. It's imperative, for your own safety. We have reason to believe that there are eyes and ears that may be reporting to his father."

"I'm sorry Professor, but I can't do that," argued Hermione. "He's become one of my best friends and I wont let him become lost. I can't stand by and do nothing, it's not in my nature and it certainly isn't in his. If I were in his place, he would do the same for me, this I'm sure of."

McGonagall gave a knowing smile. "I had a feeling you might say that, that is why I am also giving you this." It was a second key, an exact replica to the private study. "The room is for both of the heads, it shall be your task to give this to Mr. Malfoy." She left the cabin leaving a puzzled Hermione behind.

Hermione returned to the prefects cabin and spotted Draco giving assignments to new prefects. She went up to hi and said, "This is for you. Opens the study by the Restricted Section."

"Just the Head Girl I wanted to see," he said icily. It made Hermione's skin crawl. He took the key from her and ushered her back outside of the cabin. "We need to set up some ground rules," he said. "I can't have you undermining me –"

"Excuse me?" Hermione interrupted. "If anyone's got a history of undermining authority it's you."

"That's neither here nor there, Granger," he said obviously not paying attention to her words, "We need to set up a schedule for the rounds, and –"

"I've already set one up," said Hermione. "I've already had it approved by the Headmaster, and it's non-negotiable. I'm sure you'll find a way to reconcile yourself with the times I've assigned to you for rounds." Truth be told, Hermione and Draco had both worked on the schedule over the summer. They had arranged it in such a way that they would be able to patrol together, but now that the circumstances have changed Hermione felt a deep sense of worry at how Draco would react once he found out that all of his rounds were with Hermione.

"We need to set up some ground rules," said Hermione, "It's important that we not fight. So I propose that the study be the only place we argue."

Draco's eye twitched at the suggestion, which Hermione knew from experience that he was amused with her. "I'm going to need to see you in the study," he said, "TONIGHT."

Before the Sorting Ceremony Hermione and Draco gave out the rounds schedule to all of the prefects, and made sure that they were familiar with their respective house's passwords. Once the banquet had ended, the rush began and Hermione directed the new first years to their proper common rooms. She finally found time to talk with Harry and Ron once everyone was safely tucked away in all the right places.

"Hermione," said Ron, "You said you had something to tell us. What was it?"

"Oh," said Hermione, "It' isn't important now. To be honest I've forgotten what it was with all this excitement." Hermione checked her watch, she was antsy. She agreed to meet with Draco at the study before their rounds, and time seemed to come a crawl.

"It's too bad that git Malfoy got Head Boy," said Ron. "Harry and I could've done a much better job." Hermione smiled at his comment, though she had her doubts about their ability to handle the job of Head Boy.

"Says the man whose already broken two rules before the sorting ceremony," said Harry with a laugh. "Took some fifth year out for a fly on the quidditch pitch, not even gonna say what the other rule was." Ron attacked Harry with pumpkin pasties as retaliation. Hermione let herself relax at this scene, she knew nothing of what would come to pass, but she at least had Harry and Ron still at her side.

"I've got to get going," said Hermione, "My shift's about to start, and what can I say, I want to get a head start." Bouncing to her feet she gave her goodnights to her best friends and left the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Crazy nutter, that one," she heard Ron say as she left.

Making her way to the library, she spotted some second years looking to misbehave and ordered them to their common rooms, with the threat of point deduction they scampered away as told. Upon reaching the locked door to the private study, Hermione readied her key when she heard a noise inside.

Unlocking the door as quickly as she could the sight that awaited her made her regret her hurry. Inside was Draco and a Slytherin Sixth year girl in the middle of a heated snog. Surprised at the interruption they pulled apart in an instant with the sixth year quickly straightening out her clothes.

"Out," said Hermione, "to your common room before I deduct points." The girl was out the door before Hermione could even finish her sentence. Draco leaned against the table, clearly proud of his actions with his arms folded across his chest.

"Spoiled sport," he remarked, his smirk pasted proudly on his face.

"That," said Hermione with emphasis, "Is definitely not going to repeat itself in this room. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"No," he said, "have you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione.

"You barged in here without so much as a knock," he said, "it's quite rude."

"Don't you try to turn this around on me!" Hermione entered the room and slammed the door shut. "I refuse to be taken advantage of, and you will treat me with respect."

"Bored now."

"Fine," said Hermione, "Let's get to what we're really here for then." Hermione sat at the table and took from her bag a piece of parchment and a quill. "Let's make this official so there's absolutely no misunderstanding between us."

"I have some rules too," he said taking the seat across from her.

They finished hammering out their rules with enough time before their rounds started.

"Alright, this looks about complete," said Hermione grumpily. "Rule 1: This is the only space in which the Heads shall argue."

"Agreed."

"Rule 2: Failure to adhere to Rule 1 equals in a demerit. Accumulating five demerits means the person at fault will take on an extra shift of hall monitoring."

"Agreed."

"Rule 3: No visitors in the Private Study."

Draco breathed a heavy sigh, but eventually said: "Agreed."

"Rule 4: No illicit activities."

"Agreed."

"Rule 5: Always clean up after yourself after using the study."

"Agreed."

"Rule 6: No name calling, hexing, cursing, or poisons shall be inflicted to either of the key holders to the Private Study."

"Agreed."

"Rule 7: Transfigurations of objects, animals or _people _into other objects and animals are herby banned from the Private Study."

"Agreed."

"Rule 8: The study shall only be used for A) Studying, B) Head Girl or Boy duties, and C) Settling disputes."

"Agreed."

"Rule 9: No," this time it was Hermione's turn to sigh, "Shenanigans."

"Agreed."

"Rule 10: Any new rules to be added or amended or repealed will be decided by a game of Wizard Chess."

"Agreed."

"Alright then," said Hermione. "Just sign the bottom and I'll post it up on the wall, so we can always refer to it."

"Granger," began Draco.

"'Hermione,'" she corrected.

"Hermione," he said in a slow begrudging tone, "Why is it that my patrol duties mirror your duties exactly to a tee?"

Lying, "To make sure that you are always on task," said Hermione. "Although I'm aware of your sterling academic record, I'm still undecided on your work ethic. When it comes down to re-working the schedules, I'll be sure to ask for your input, but for now, you're stuck with me and my watchful eyes." It hurt Hermione a little to lie to her friend, but she did what she had to to save face in front of him. "Now, as it seems that our shifts our about to begin, I'll take the odd floors, and you take the evens."

Draco gave a brief nod and left the room to begin his night's work with Hermione following after him. She locked the door and looked at his back, and she felt the oddest sense of loneliness. Years now, she'd built up a wonderful relationship with him, and now it was as if he was a blank slate. It seems like he's the same boy who was dropped on her doorstep years before.

As the night wound down, Hermione headed back to her common room. She was surprised to see that Harry and Ron were still awake.

"Oy," said Ron, "You got a letter." He produced a scroll and handed it to Hermione. "Looks important, thought we'd stay up and wait for you to open it." He added cheekily. Despite his tone, she knew that Harry and Ron were anxious to know what were the contents of this letter, should it be news from the Order of the Phoenix.

Hermione took the letter and opened it. All it read were two words, _Tabula Rasa._ Frowning, Hermione handed the note over so that Ron and Harry could read, and they exchanged looks of confusion. "Any ideas," asked Hermione.

Harry shook his head, and Ron for once looked pensive. "I think I heard Dad talking about something like this once. Said that an old Remembrall had been cursed and passed around, and it would erase people's memories."

"Do you think that Tabular Rasa might have something to do with that Remembrall?" said Hermione. Her mind was racing, clearly the note was meant to help her with her situation with Draco, but she was just too uninformed on the matter to know how the clue fit into her puzzle. "I'm going to have to do some research—"

"At the library," finished Ron and Harry.

"Give it a rest for tonight, Hermione," said Harry. "We've got classes in the morning, double potions."

"Yeah, just come back to it later," added Ron.

"Later might be too late," chided Hermione. "But you're right," she fought back a yawn, "the next free moment I have though, mark my words, I _will_ be researching this topic." Hermione's heart beat raced, and she felt a glimmer of hope for the first time during her very long day. Someone was trying to help her, or warn her, but no matter what Hermione was determined to get Draco back.

**AN: **Thanks everyone for reading! Please remember to review and add this story to your fav's and watch lists. Every little bit helps to inspire me to keep writing! Review, review, review!


	15. Draco Déjà Vu

**Unexpected Series of Events**

**Draco Déjà Vu **

In the Slytherin common room Draco attempted to lay out on one of the couches in the way he'd done many times before. Since he'd grown taller over the years, it's become more and more difficult to find a comfortable position. He sometimes hated that he'd become so angular and lanky, and that his legs would spill over his bed or right now, the couch. He'd been feeling an odd sense of incompleteness since he'd arrived at Hogwarts, and no amount of distraction was helping to alleviate the sensation.

Crabe and Goyle laughed at his inability to fit properly on the couch, that it made Draco throw his hands up in exasperation. He gave up and sat upright, giving Pansy Parkinson room to sit down next to him.

"Draco, you don't seem well," she said. Draco looked into her eyes, as if searching for an answer. "Is something bothering you?"

"Not a good day," he replied. "I feel like I've forgotten something, or lost— I don't know." He rubbed his temples, he felt as if it would help him remember.

"Listen to yourself," said Pansy, "You're starting to sound like Longbottom." She sidled up next to him and put her arms around him. "Why don't you let me help you," she then pushed Draco off of the couch.

Startled, and beginning to grow irate, Draco was about to retaliate when Pansy put her hands on his shoulders and began to massage him. It was an old ritual between the two of them, and it comforted Draco a little that she was still willing to put up with old traditions for their friendship. He put a hand up to touch hers, and she immediately pulled away to work on the lower part of his back.

"Tell me about your summer," she said after a long pause.

Draco opened his mouth to reply only to find that he wasn't quite sure where to begin. "France," he said finally.

"Bordeux again?" said Pansy.

"No," said Draco, "We went to Nice."

"We?"

"Yes, mother and I," said Draco, "She rather insisted on it. Said that 'Bordeux was passé.'"

Pansy stopped massaging his back, and pushed off of him. She leaned back onto the dark setee, and looked at him curiously. Tilting her head, and then finally resting it on the setee's arm she let her eyes close and then yawned.

"Say," said Draco. He hopped back onto the couch and leaned over Pansy's resting figure. "I know something that will help me de-stress," he said softly into her ears. Pansy's eyes fluttered open, and she pushed him out of her space.

"We've been through this before," said Pansy, "We are better friends that we ever were as a couple. Doing that _thing_ you want to do right now, will just ruin what we have going now."

She got up and headed towards the girls dormitories, but before disappearing for the night she looked back and called to Draco: "Get some sleep, dream of lovely things." It was another of their traditions between them, a sign that she wasn't mad at him.

The next morning Draco had gotten a very small amount of sleep, and resulted in him being cross with many of the new first years as they headed towards breakfast in the Great Hall. He took a seat in between Crabbe and Pansy and began picking at his food, he normally had a sensible appetite, but today it was not present. He looked around the hall at the cheery faces, new faces that were both excited and scared about what their day might bring and he felt an irrepressible hatred towards them. He seethed with jealousy for a reason unknown to him, and wanted them all to know his pain. Crabbe moved to rise from the table and accidentally knocked over his pumpkin juice all over Draco's trousers.

"Crabbe you idiot!" shouted Draco. He stood up and began wiping off the excess with his napkin.

"Sorry," muttered Crabbe, but by then many of the students had turned to look at the commotion and had started to laugh. Fuming, Draco marched out of the Great Hall in a hurry. On his way out he hit the three people he did not want to see most at that moment.

"Watch it," said Ron. He would have stayed to fight, but his stomach commanded that he sit down and begin shoveling food into his mouth. Harry and Hermione were mildly startled by Draco's appearance. His eyes wide with fury, and his clothes disheveled, even they knew that it was quite uncharacteristic of him to appear in such a state.

"You've got juice on your pants mate," said Harry with a laugh, and he too walked around Draco and headed toward the Gryffindor table.

"Go on," said Draco to the remaining Hermione," have your laugh." He fully expected Hermione to comment on his appearance, but she didn't.

"Potion's starts in twenty minutes," she remarked while she passed him by, "if you're going to get that cleaned up, I suggest you hurry."

Draco raced to the prefects bathroom to inspect the damage. He pulled out his wand and muttered a quick cleaning spell on his clothes. He checked his watch only to find that it was broken and stopped at 1:07. He took a closer look at the relic and wondered why he'd even put it on this morning. Grabbing his things, he raced to the dungeons to get to the class that Draco was almost one hundred percent sure he was late for.

"Mr. Malfoy," said Snape after Draco wrenched open the classroom door, "How _nice_ of you to grace us with your presence." The Potions Master gave him a very rare cross look and indicated that Draco should take a seat before his patience wore thin. Draco went to the back of the class and unpacked his books.

"As I was saying," continued Snape, "Today, you will be brewing one half of a potion. Once you have brewed your half of the potion you will pair with another student who has the completed the other half of potion."

Confused looks were exchanged among the students.

"You shall combine your work, and I shall grade the final product. In this jar are slips of paper with two numbers, those who draw the number thirty five shall prepare the potion on that page, and vice versa for the number seventy six. Any questions?" without waiting for a reply he continued with, "Good. Begin."

One by one students went to the front of the class to draw their number and gather their ingredients. As Draco made his way to the front of the class he noticed that the Head Girl had already finished gathering her ingredients and had set to work on her half of the potion they were brewing today. She looked as if she'd be finished with this potion in no time flat, she could probably even brew the second half by herself if she wanted.

"Professor," inquired Blaise Zabini, "What is it we're making exactly?" He was already at his cauldron ready to work. "These ingredients are all poisonous."

"We're brewing Bliss," replied Hermione.

"Wasn't asking you know-it-all," spat Blaise.

"Perhaps someone other than Ms. Granger can enlighten the class as to why Bliss has so many poisonous elements," said Snape.

Before Draco knew what he was doing he was answering Snape's question. "The ingredients are poisonous but they also contain highly hallucinogenic attributes that trick the user into a false sense of euphoria, much of the poison is dissipated by the addition of a simple restorative potion, which is the only way this potion is allowed to be distributed in England. It's used on prisoners in Azkaban to sedate them before they are transported there."

"That's so cruel," said Pansy.

"Ten points to Slytherin," said Snape. "All of you could stand to do some reading like Mr. Malfoy. Now get back to work."

Draco drew out the last slip of paper in the jar: thirty five. Opening his potion's book to that page he went to the ingredients cabinet, he noticed there were already minute notes in the margin of his book. It was his writing, but he didn't quite remember putting it there. Returning to his seat, he set out to finish his part of the potion. His, was not the potion that contained the poisons, but the medicinal herbs, and worts, and roots of the like. He chopped and measured meticulously, mostly because that was what the margin notes told him to do.

His work paid off as he stirred his cauldron and the liquid turned a pearlescent white. Looking around at other cauldron's and he could see that they were merely murky soups that would take much longer time to reach the desired state before it could be combined to make the Bliss potion.

"If you are finished with your potion set about finding someone who is also finished with theirs so you may combine and turn in your final product. Bottles for the combined potion can be found at the front of the class," announced Snape.

Only two students moved to the front of the class to retrieve a bottle, Hermione and Draco, and to Draco's chagrin Hermione brewed the poisonous potion. Snape loomed behind them, and snatched from their hands their individual potions.

"Class, these are prime examples of what your end products should look like," said Snape. He held up Draco's luminous potion in one hand, and Hermione's glowing potion in the other. Students craned to see Snape holding up the two vials, and checked the color of their potions against it. "It seems, that many of you actually need the full time allotted for this exercise," said Snape bitterly, "Zabini, you'll have to start again." Blaise looked at his pathetic, yellowing brew and frowned.

Snape turned and returned the two vials to Hermione and Draco. "Mix, and leave," he said sharply. The two Heads exchanged looks and returned to the closer work station, which was Hermione's at the front of the class.

"Let's get this over with," said Draco. He uncorked the two vials and consulted Hermione's book on potion's procedure. He opened the book to the page for his potion and was surprised to see similar notes in her text, in fact they were identical to the ones in his book.

"You're on the wrong page," said Hermione. She took the book from his hands and flipped to the correct page with the word Bliss emblazoned at the top. "Pour Phantasma into bottle using a glass funnel, followed by Recoup Reginald's Cure All. Cap, and shake for thirty seconds, then swirl for forty five seconds."

Hermione shook, then handed the bottle to Draco, "Your turn."

Draco took the bottle and began the task of swirling the bottle. Hermione set about to gathering her things. She took care to not look Draco in the face, but the reflection from his watch face momentarily sparkled in her field of vision. Draco finished swirling and turned it in to Snape.

"I notice that your watch is broken," remarked Hermione on their way out of the dungeons. "You should get that fixed, I don't want you being late to any of the prefect meetings."

"Don't be stupid Granger," said Draco, "I'm not wearing a watch."

"It's _Hermione,_" she said, "and _YES_ you are too wearing a watch." She grabbed his wrist and held it up for him to see. "Large leather band, big silver watch," she said, "Kind of hard to – OW!" Hermione dropped his wrist, as a painful pinch coursed up her right arm.

Draco gave his arm a confused look. Hermione was right, he was indeed wearing a watch, but he couldn't remember why he had forgotten. It tightened uncomfortably around his wrist the moment Hermione grabbed his arm, but to his surprise he didn't want to do anything about the pain. He was snapped out of his reverie when Hermione dropped like a rock beside him.

**AN: Thanks for all the reviews and favs, hope you enjoyed reading. Please review! **


End file.
